Welcome to Dispatch #38! This week we are exploring the ever-changing role of media and entertainment in shaping our worldview and how propaganda is changing and adapting in modern times. Let's talk about the ways independent media supported revolution during the Arab Spring, the latest version of information warfare, and the evolution of the military-entertainment complex. And as always, fresh resources and calls-to-action to get involved today!
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Easy Actions to Take
Why: Ahmed Shihab-Eldin is an award-winning journalist who has worked for PBS Frontline, the New York Times, BBC, CNN, NBC and MSNBC. Since March 2, he has been detained in Kuwait with limited access to his lawyer, charged with “spreading disinformation.” This campaign sends personalised emails to 18 foreign ministries and embassies — including those in Kuwait itself — urging them to publicly condemn the regional crackdown on press freedom, call for Ahmed's immediate release, and raise these concerns through diplomatic channels. Organized by Newscord
Why: This May, millions of people are expected to tune in to the 70th Eurovision Song Contest. For the third consecutive year, they’ll find Israel celebrated onstage despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza, while Russia remains banned for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. We must stand in solidarity with Palestinians living through genocide and reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalise Israel’s genocide, siege and brutal military occupation. Organized by No Music for Genocide
Why: In the next week, Congress will vote on one of the federal government's most dangerous surveillance powers, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which gives the FBI and other agencies a backdoor to spy on Americans without a warrant. 20 House Republicans voted against the bill in revolt last week, Congress was forced to pass an emergency 10-day extension to give them time to try to figure out a path forward. Now House Speaker Johnson has turned to the Democrats for help passing the bill — giving us an opportunity to keep up the pressure and stop this bill in its tracks. Organized by Color of Change
Little (Movement) Wins
How Independent Media Became Revolutionary Infrastructure During the Arab Spring
Activist History
In 2010 and 2011, a wave of uprisings swept across the Arab world in what became known as the Arab Spring. In Tunisia and Egypt, decades of authoritarian rule collapsed under the weight of popular protest. But the battle wasn’t just on the streets, it was in the information sphere too. Two independent media organizations formed during this time that became instrumental in informing the masses and generating popular support locally and internationally, even as the governments in power did everything they could to censor and cut off activists from the outside world
Read more to learn about RASSD and Nawaat, two independent media organizations that came to support the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, respectively, and what activists can learn from their work
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Memetic Warfare
The Conscious Citizens Dictionary
Memetic Warfare is a modern form of information and psychological warfare that involves the spreading of internet memes on social media to promote certain ideas over others and influence public opinion. In the rapidly changing world of social media, memes are cheap to produce and highly shareable, becoming the perfect tool for propaganda during times of war or conflict by taking advantage of humor, satire, and current cultural trends. Like propaganda posters of the past, memes in memetic warfare simplify complex political realities, appeal to emotion, and reinforce ideas of identity, unity, and opposition.
Governments and non-State actors around the world are already engaging in memetic warfare, and regular people are the primary targets. The Trump administration uses Studio Ghibli trends and video game footage to promote ICE and the war with Iran. The Iranian regime in turn uses AI-generated LEGO videos and Pixar spoofs to mock Trump and his allies. Russian “web brigades” of trolls have worked to spread confusion and disinformation online. The Chinese government has operated a memetic disinformation campaign called Spamouflage to promote pro-CCP narratives since at least the early 2020s. The Israeli government employs thousands of AI bots on social media to promote Israeli policy. The purpose of it all, according to Jeff Giesea, who coined the term, is to “take control of the dialogue, narrative, and psychological space” through social media before the enemy can do the same.
The Best Propaganda is Entertaining AF
Deep Dive
Here’s an uncomfortable question: how many of your favorite movies, tv shows, video games, art, or content creators are actually propaganda?
When we think of propaganda, a lot of us picture anti-communist posters, big fascist rallies, or Uncle Sam saying he wants “you” for the military. Don’t get us wrong, that is all propaganda too, but in many ways that’s basic, level 1 type stuff. The really good stuff is a lot more subtle and you won’t even realize it’s propaganda because you’ll be laughing, smiling, and having a good time while you’re watching. It’s hidden inside the entertainment that we’re told is “apolitical” - popular movies, TV, comic books, art galleries, literary journals, video games, memes, and everything in between.
That’s because when you’re entertained, your guard is down. You’re not watching out for government narratives being implanted or ulterior motives because the assumption is that all these things are just for fun. But there’s always a message, even if it’s not explicitly told to us. The Kenyan filmmaker Judy Kibinge has said, “you are what you watch” because the media we consume shapes how we view the world, what we consider normal, and who we view as the “enemy.” When we look at the things happening around the world, the media has already shaped how we feel about it.
Read more to learn about the ways that the US government has influenced our entertainment, why they’ve invested billions to do it, what that means for our culture, and what we can actually do about it.
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“You are what you watch.”
- Judy Kibinge, Kenyan filmmaker
Resources & Tools
Here are some recent adds to the directory. Please share these links with anyone that might find them helpful:
- 🏥 Anxiety Aid Tools | A collection of free, open-source exercises – like breathing, grounding, visualisation and muscle relaxation – that don’t require special gear and are meant to help calm racing thoughts whenever you feel overloaded.
- 📚 Open Culture | A free educational resource library by Open Culture that centralizes and curates thousands of high-quality free educational and cultural resources that are normally scattered across the web and not easy to find, from university courses, ebooks, and audiobooks to classic films and language lessons– whenever and wherever you want it.
- 📱 Libation | Liberate your library with this free, open-source tool (all platforms) for downloading your Audible library and stripping the DRM so your audiobooks are actually yours to keep.
- 🧠 Theaters of War: How the Pentagon & CIA Took Hollywood | A 1.5-hr documentary film that examines the significant influence of the Pentagon & CIA in shaping Hollywood and television scripts, based on thousands of pages of internal state files acquired by investigative journalist Tom Secker using the Freedom of Information Act.
- 📓 Critical Media Literacy Tips for the Digital Age | A collection of media literacy tips and frameworks to help you determine what is true, different types of truth, and what is mis/disinformation in the modern media landscape.
➡️ Explore More on our Directory!
Know any resources that you think would be a great add to our directory? Share it with us! (We only see so much from our corner of the world)
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With Love & Light,
Elisa & Ray
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