Film+Annotation+2

Allison Mrugal 09/09/15 Film Annotation 2: Sust. Ed., 4280-01 Prof. Fortun
 * Toxic Sludge is Good for You **

//Toxic Sludge is Good for You// unravels the Public Relations industry in an educational format. In interviews with various scholars and former PR consultants, the film contrasts the public’s perception of journalism with the actual, invisible power that is PR. Aside from one-on-one interviews, the film also critiques various public media, showing headlines in newspapers (such as debutants hired to smoke cigarettes in the 1929 Easter Day Parade to promote cigarette sales), propaganda posters and clips of the nightly news. By collecting these resources, the film creates a format with which the issue (of a silent democracy) can be digested. After providing analysis and access of such information, the take-away of the film is to promote awareness, activism, advocacy.

However, many PR efforts are (falsely) consumed as reliable sources of information; disproving this will, for an audience of k-12 students, turn their world up-side-down. Commercial public relations has shaped the students that we will be working with in almost every channel of communication. Via the television, the radio, and billboards, students are unknowingly absorbing advertisements that promote industrial agriculture, for example. They advocate for parents and children to meet daily whole grains requirements by eating highly-processed, sugared cereals. Meanwhile oil companies sponsor athletic tournaments and entertainment platforms that children enjoy and aspire to join one day.

Aside from their everyday influence in children’s lives, public relations also encourages “greenwashing,” where a company or political effort will broadcast an environmentally-friendly public image, despite causing damage to the environment in (often significant) ways. Examples of this that are particularly provocative include the DuPont Environmental Education Center of Delaware Nature Society, which is near where I live in Pennsylvania. This past summer we took 3rd and 4th grade students there to learn about the wildlife. Despite the building promoting connection and understanding between people and the environment, DuPont Chemical sponsors it and exploits environmental resources regularly. In 2013 DuPont rated number one on the Toxic 100 Air Polluters (Political Economy Research Institute).

To teach middle school students about greenwashing and propaganda in general, it is important to show them how to think for themselves. Educators can begin to lead by example in provoking questions like “how” and “why” in the classroom. Likewise they could encourage proactive disagreement when discussing issues to introduce students to real-world situations. Specifically, we could have each student choose a newspaper article, segment of the nightly news, or a recent movie that touches or surrounds the topic of health or sustainability. We could then ask them to ask five (or more) questions all of which are “why?” Hopefully, in doing this we can have students think critically about and trace the process of where information comes from.

In planning for a community Earth Day event at RPI, we should utilize the promotional qualities of public relations rather than the manipulative, invisible campaigns that operate political and corporate decisions. Because we want to broadcast the message to citizens of Troy, we should publicize connections that a university like RPI (leading in technological progress) has. At the same time, we should do so transparently and honestly, informing potential attendees that we are not perfect and are do not obtain environmental standards ourselves. In conjunction with Dennis L. Wilcox’s PR strategies, we could arrange an interview with someone at the forefront of eco-technology or in environmental policy (Public Relations Strategies and Tactics 1995). Specifically, these celebrities could come from the Radix center in Albany. Another option would be to host a poster contest or a small-scale Change the World challenge. These competitions could encourage students and citizens to empathize and care for their environment as well as develop connections to those working in the industry. On the contrary, PR strategies that are not appropriate for use by educators, researchers, and/or civic activists include the education that their practice is the best option (the end-all-be-all). Furthermore, providing speakers and debates that are positioned on only one side of an argument would do the mute-faceted issue of climate change an injustice.