“People Don’t Always Show Up the Way You Want Them To”: Utilizing The Hunger Games to Differentiate Between Persuasion, Coercion, Propaganda, and Manipulation

The ability to define and conceptualize persuasion and its nuances without engaging in coercion, propaganda, and/or manipulation can be difficult for students at first. This activity centralizes the fine points among these persuasive concepts. Students also recognize the role of their audience in the persuasive messages that they create. Rather than only having a conversation about the common characteristics of these terms and how they differ, students can observe them within the fictional movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (Lawrence, 2014). After discussing these ideas with their classmates, students then apply what they have learned by creating persuasive messages of their own. Students ultimately apply what they have learned about persuasion and communication ethics by creating advertisements for the rebellion that demonstrate persuasive techniques