The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is offering a course this semester focusing on what it calls “Trumpaganda.”
Students will examine Trump’s “war on facts, press and democracy,” according to the eight-week course title.
The class is offered through the university’s journalism program, according to the Daily Illini.
“As a candidate, Trump employed the most common propaganda device, name-calling, to define, degrade, discredit and destroy his primary opponents as well as the 'fake' news media,” the course description reads.
Mira Sotirovic, associate professor in media, is teaching the class, and told The Daily Illini that students will look at President Trump
Donald John TrumpBen Carson says he's 'out of the woods' after being 'extremely sick' with COVID-19 Biden will receive @POTUS Twitter account on Jan. 20 even if Trump doesn't concede, company says Trump to participate in virtual G-20 summit amid coronavirus surge MORE’s strategies for dealing with the press to look how propaganda can exist in a democracy.
“Propaganda is effective only if it is concealed and camouflaged as something else, such as news, advertisements or PR releases, and it is critical to learn how to detect propaganda and recognize propagandistic features of any communication, including presidential,” Sotirovic told the paper.
Sotirovic contributed a chapter to the scholarly text: “Communication in the Age of Trump.”
