History Camp 2024: “Stories They Tell” – History-Based Propaganda in Popular Culture

How does popular culture shape our understanding of history? How do we detect and counter ideological messages embedded in entertaining stories?

In the framework of the EUSTORY Next Generation Summit, 16 young prize winners from the national history competitions in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine explored the ways history-based propaganda manifests in popular culture. Together with workshop leader Lilit Dabagian, Berlin based public history practitioner from Kyrgyztan, they combined  deep dives into media literacy with hands-on creative projects in the History Camp.

History-based propaganda seamlessly woven into captivating narratives within popular culture operates with far greater subtlety than overt propagandistic statements. To sharpen the participants’ abilities to critically engage with such narratives and to look beyond the surface of powerful imagery and emotional storytelling, they were introduced to the principles of ideological film analysis. This approach to understanding films enabled them to uncover the hidden values, ideas, and beliefs promoted by the several media products they analysed.

Inspired by critical analyses and engaging multi-perspective discussions, participants created their final project for the workshop.

Participants employed their acquired skills to develop creative projects to counter history-based propaganda. Working in four groups they created diverse media projects with innovative AI tools offering alternative narratives and reflections on history-based propaganda in popular culture.

Click on the items below to check out their videos & animations!

The History Camp 2024 formed an integral part of the cooperation project “A Toolkit for Critical History Teaching” which is implemented by DVV International in cooperation with Körber-Stiftung and with the financial support of the German Federal Foreign Office within the framework “Civil Society Cooperation”.