Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth (CTY) is offering a new summer course for middle and high school students titled “Persuasion and Propaganda.” The class targets advanced learners in grades 8–12 and is designed to develop critical media literacy skills. Topics include analyzing political advertisements, bot-generated social media content, biased TV reporting, and misleading marketing.
The course encourages students to challenge assumptions and construct persuasive arguments through essays, speeches, and media presentations. The program description poses a key question: “Without an objective distance from current events—and with ever subtler techniques for influencing opinions—how can we tell what is ‘fake news’?”
The class does not provide a clear definition of “fake news,” and the university has not clarified whether the course addresses factually false reporting or focuses on ideological bias. This ambiguity raises questions about the class’s potential to frame certain viewpoints, including conservative perspectives, as misinformation. The term “fake news” is widely used but poorly defined, often serving as a rhetorical weapon in political debates.
