Propaganda and Ideology in Everyday Life (FutureLearn)

Propaganda and Ideology in Everyday Life (FutureLearn)

Find out how propaganda is used to instil political ideologies and its impact on our daily lives, with this free online course. This free online course explores the building blocks of our political views: freedom, community, place, justice and choice. These words mean different things to different people – such radically different things in fact, that individuals, protest movements and entire states often go to war to assert their understanding of, say, freedom over somebody else’s.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see FutureLearn's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Understand the impact of propaganda on our everyday lives
Over five weeks, we will explore how and why words come to mean such different things, across time and space. We will look at how individuals respond to the political propaganda they are exposed to, and how political ideas can impact on people’s everyday lives.
The course draws on the academic expertise of The University of Nottingham’s Centre for the Study of Ideologies (CSPI), as well as collections showcased in the British Library’s 2013 exhibition, Propaganda: Power and Persuasion.
We will examine examples from different periods and contexts in the 20th and 21st centuries, looking at how propaganda is used to promote causes both “good” and “bad” in the arenas of public health, identity and belonging, and freedom and responsibility.

Share your beliefs with a global community of learners
Throughout the course, you will be able to share your thoughts, beliefs and experiences with other learners, and post images to an online archive, helping to show us what freedom, community or protest might mean to you.
In this way, you can join a global conversation, where people discuss politics across national, social and religious dividing lines, helping all of us appreciate where our differences of views originate.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Intercultural Contact (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Leeds

Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Intercultural Contact (FutureLearn)

Learn how the principles of intercultural contact may challenge the way in which you think about social interaction. On this course you will examine the idea of intercultural contact and the effects of cultural interactions from historical and global perspectives. Through videos and articles, you will discover how intercultural contact is experienced in our everyday lives, and learn about the ways in which people develop intercultural competence.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Strategic Communication to Counter Security Threats in the Disinformation Era (URJC) URJCx
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Strategic Communication to Counter Security Threats in the Disinformation Era (URJC)

The culture of communications is changing at a rapid pace, driven by the power of internet and social networks. The digital communication environment, with its remarkable advantages and opportunities, also provides opportunities to different actors for conducting malicious influencing activities, divide societies, erode the democratic values and sow distrust in our institutions. Users are encouraged to create personal echo-chambers at the expense of information pluralism and to move away from reliable and credible news reporting and sound journalist analyses.

No session available
5-12 Weeks
The Holocaust - An Introduction (I): Nazi Germany: Ideology, The Jews and the World (Coursera) Coursera
Tel Aviv University,Yad Vashem

The Holocaust - An Introduction (I): Nazi Germany: Ideology, The Jews and the World (Coursera)

The Holocaust was an inconceivable historical event, which forever robbed Western culture of its innocence. As civilized human beings, we fail to understand how events of such horror could have taken place, and how an idea so inhumanly warped could have spread like wildfire through an entire continent, instigating the systematic annihilation of millions of Jews. This free online course was produced jointly by Tel Aviv University and Yad Vashem – the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. The course tracks the history of the Holocaust and has two parts.

Aug 23rd 2026
3 Weeks
At the Origins of the Mediterranean Civilization: Archaeology of the City from the Levant to the West - 3rd-1st millennium BC (Coursera) Coursera
Sapienza University of Rome

At the Origins of the Mediterranean Civilization: Archaeology of the City from the Levant to the West - 3rd-1st millennium BC (Coursera)

Which are the deepest roots of that mix of cultures that we use to call ‘Mediterranean Civilization’? Which are comminglings and exchanges which produced its most complete fruit, i.e. the city, a place for landscape-modelling communities? And which elements did contribute to build up that baulk of customs, ideas, and innovations which compelled to confrontation and hybridizations different peoples for millennia? What did it made, from pottery to metallurgy, from gastronomy to architecture, from art to religion, of a sea a cradle of civilization? Archaeology may help in disentangling such questions, seeking unexpected answers , by tinkering what ancient Mediterranean peoples left buried in the ground.

Aug 24th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Introduction to Translational Research: Connecting Scientists and Medical Doctors (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Taipei Medical University

Introduction to Translational Research: Connecting Scientists and Medical Doctors (FutureLearn)

Understand the emerging discipline of translational medicine and the process of taking research from ‘benchside’ to ‘bedside'. Translational medicine, also known as translational science or translational research, is a new, growing discipline in medicine that aims to ensure research flows from ‘benchside’ to ‘bedside’.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Introduction to Intercultural Studies: The Branding of Culture (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Leeds

Introduction to Intercultural Studies: The Branding of Culture (FutureLearn)

Learn how products move across borders and how branding problematically draws on narratives of culture and place. Discover how marketing uses narratives of culture and place. The course examines an aspect of marketing through the ways branding makes use of cultural stereotypes to promote products or places.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
A Global History of Sex and Gender: Bodies and Power in the Modern World (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Glasgow

A Global History of Sex and Gender: Bodies and Power in the Modern World (FutureLearn)

Discover how a focus on gender and sexuality transforms our understanding of modern, global history. Study historical perspectives on contemporary issues of sex and gender. This course offers you the chance to explore vital historical perspectives on key contemporary issues surrounding sexuality and gender, including the #MeToo movement, campaigns for gay and trans rights, equal pay, and reproductive justice.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Corpus Linguistics: Method, Analysis, Interpretation (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Lancaster University

Corpus Linguistics: Method, Analysis, Interpretation (FutureLearn)

Get a practical introduction to the methodology of corpus linguistics for researchers in the social sciences and humanities. Learn how to build and query corpora in this practical course On this course, you’ll get a practical introduction to corpus linguistics, an extremely versatile methodology of language analysis using computers.

Sep 16th 2024
5-12 Weeks
Caring for Children Moving Alone: Protecting Unaccompanied and Separated Children (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Strathclyde,CELSIS

Caring for Children Moving Alone: Protecting Unaccompanied and Separated Children (FutureLearn)

Learn about unaccompanied and separated refugee and migrant children. This course is about the care and protection of unaccompanied and separated refugee and migrant children who are moving across and between countries. This course will provide an understanding of the risks and vulnerabilities these children face.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Development and Planning in African Cities: Exploring theories, policies and practices from Sierra Leone (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University College London,Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre,Njala University

Development and Planning in African Cities: Exploring theories, policies and practices from Sierra Leone (FutureLearn)

As African cities grow, learn how development and planning help urban actors to make cities just and sustainable for all. In the next 35 years, Africa will need to accommodate almost 900 million new urban dwellers. Hundreds of smaller cities are doubling in size every 20 years, half of Africa’s urban dwellers live in informal settlements in precarious conditions, and 75% of these are younger than 35. Our course will explore African cities through the lenses of spatial justice and social diversity, challenging myths and assumptions about urban development and demonstrating how different processes interact and shape the development of a city.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Dangerous Questions: Why Academic Freedom Matters (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Oslo,Scholars at Risk

Dangerous Questions: Why Academic Freedom Matters (FutureLearn)

Explore the meaning of academic freedom and how it relates to core higher education and societal values. Challenge the limits to critical inquiry. Academic freedom is a fundamental value in modern higher education and research. On this course, you’ll find out how we can use academic freedom to ask critical questions and contribute to a democratic society.

Self Paced
3 Weeks