Media+Hoaxes+and+Pranks,

Over the past couple of weeks, I have used many research methods for my 21st century propaganda project on media hoaxes and pranks. My main source has been Temple University’s research guides through the librarian Kristina De Voe’s BTMM 1021 link for scholarly articles. The database [|Communication and Mass Media Complete] has been very helpful with my research. However, I wanted to try a different research method that I had not used since high school, which was going to the library and checking out books from Paley Stacks for research. My mission was to find a book recommended by Professor Hobbs, //[|Our space: Resisting the corporate control of culture]//by Christine Harold.

Unfortunately, it was missing from the library and I had to submit a missing book form, in hopes it could be found. After a failed attempt to find that book, I came across another book, //[|Jamming the media: A citizen’s guide: Reclaiming the tools of communication]//by Gareth Branwyn. This particular book had been mentioned in another article I had read for this project, //[|Duped: When journalists fall for fake news]//by Chris Berdik.

Gareth Branwyn’s book, //Jamming the media: A citizen’s guide: Reclaiming the tools of communication// (1997), contained chapters on information about multimedia for the masses to broadcasting. However, chapter six, media pranks and art hacks (hence the title), proved to be the most resourceful part of the book for my project. I thought this chapter was really worth reading because unlike most of the information I have been reading, this chapter contained in-depth information about different hoaxes, a few that have been mentioned before in previous précis’s I have written. The hoaxes Branwyn focuses on are not revengeful but a means to fighting back.

Some of these hoaxes/pranks included the gender blender Barbie; switched voice-chips within the two toys and returned them to stores to be sold during Christmastime . The joyous sounds of cacophony which involved people disguised as clowns and cave people on rampages, as well as pranks and hoaxes including flyers announcing UFO landings. The art of billboard liberation prank involved billboard liberation front (BLF), in which they hacked a neon sign. Branwyn also offers the prankster’s starter kit that includes information on planning which involves logistics, safety, impact, and media mileage. Execution and documentation are the other two very important aspects of the prankster’s starter kit.

Branwyn, G. (1997). //Jamming the media: A citizen’s guide: Reclaiming the tools of communication.// San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ﻿