Three MEF Videos Your Students Can’t Afford to Miss
PHOTO BY ROBERT SCOBLE / CC BY 2.0
Over the past year, educators have asked us again and again to recommend MEF videos that speak directly to the most urgent political issues of our time.
So as the fall semester gets under way, we want to call your attention to three recent MEF titles that break down some of the biggest political stories of the current midterm election cycle: The Great White Hoax, which looks at racial scapegoating in American politics; Digital Disconnect, which examines the role of the internet and social media in shaping public opinion; and Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse, which explores the accelerating environmental destruction of the planet as our insatiable appetite for consumer goods and infinite economic growth continue unabated.
We encourage you to screen these videos in your classes and on campus to inspire critical thinking and debate about these pressing issues. And we hope you’ll take a minute to read more about them below!
The Great White Hoax:
Donald Trump & The Politics of Race & Class in America
Featuring Tim Wise
The Great White Hoax, featuring acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores how American political leaders in both parties have stoked white anxiety and resentment and scapegoated people of color to divide and conquer working class voters. While the film’s primary focus is Donald Trump’s 2016 run for the presidency, it widens its scope to show how Trump’s divisive campaign rhetoric about African-Americans, Latinos, and Muslims fits within a longstanding historical pattern of race-baiting that cuts across partisan lines and goes back decades in American politics. From Richard Nixon’s so-called Southern Strategy in the 1960s to Charlottesville in 2017, The Great White Hoax offers a stunning look at how racism and racial scapegoating have shaped American politics over time. An indispensable classroom resource for making sense of white – especially white male – voting patterns, and the increasingly angry, hyper-masculine backlash against pluralism, multiculturalism, and progressive social change.
“Timely and necessary.”
– Van Jones, CNN
Digital Disconnect:
How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy
Featuring Robert McChesney
Digital Disconnect trains its sights on the relationship between the internet and democracy in the age of fake news, filter bubbles, and Facebook security breaches. Moving from the development of the internet as a publicly funded project in the late 1960s to its full-scale commercialization today, renowned media scholar Robert McChesney traces how the democratizing potential of the internet has been radically compromised by the logic of capitalism and the unaccountable power of a handful of telecom and tech monopolies. Along the way, McChesney examines the ongoing attack on net neutrality by telecom monopolies like Comcast and Verizon; explores how internet giants like Facebook and Google have amassed huge profits by surreptitiously collecting personal data and selling it to advertisers; and shows how these companies have routinely colluded with the national security state to advance covert mass surveillance programs. Even more urgently, the film details how the rise of social media has worked to isolate people into ideological filter bubbles and elevate fake news at the expense of real journalism.
“Digital Disconnect is a major contribution to the self-defense of citizens.”
– Noam Chomsky
Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse
Featuring Sut Jhally
In Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse, media scholar Sut Jhally explores the devastating personal and environmental fallout from advertising, commercial culture, and rampant American consumerism. Ranging from the emergence of the modern advertising industry in the early 20th century to the full-scale commercialization of the culture today, Jhally identifies one consistent message running throughout all of advertising: the idea that corporate brands and consumer goods are the keys to human happiness. He then shows how this powerful narrative, backed by billions of dollars a year and propagated by the best creative minds, has blinded us to the catastrophic costs of ever-accelerating rates of consumption. The result is a powerful intervention in current debates about climate change and environmental collapse – one that places culture and cultural attitudes center stage. A powerful teaching tool for courses that look at commercialism, media culture, social well-being, environmental issues, and the tensions between capitalism and democracy.
“Riveting, powerful, and inspiring.”
– William Hoynes, Professor, Vassar College
