Click below to download the PPT.
POSTERS IN THE HISTORY CLASSROOM
Click on each thumbnail to view the image enlarged.
ACTIVITY
Step 1: Study each poster carefully and note your observations.
Step 2: Working as a group answer the questions in the attached worksheet for each poster. [Poster 3 is two separate posters. You can look at the two individually first, and then do a comparative analysis.]
POSTER ANALYSIS WORKSHEET
What are the main colours used in the poster?
2. What symbols (if any) are used in the poster?
3. If a symbol is used, is it
a. clear (easy to interpret)?
b. memorable?
c. dramatic?
4. Are the messages in the poster primarily visual, verbal, or both?
5. Comment on the use of text (if any) in the poster?
6. Who probably created the poster?
7. Who do you think was the intended target group?
8. Is there any affirmative action expected from the target group after seeing the poster? If so, what?
9. The most effective posters use symbols that are unusual, simple, and direct. Is this an effective poster?
10. Is there anything that you would change that you think would make the poster more effective?
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
Activity 1
On the night of 25 March 1971, when West Pakistan launched Operation Searchlight, a massive armed crackdown for the systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, religious minorities and armed personnel, a popular cry that was heard all over Dhaka, Chittagong, and other places was 'Bir Bangali ostro dhoro, Bangladesh swadhin koro.' [Take up arms, brave Bengalis/ Fight to make your country free!]
Design a poster with the above slogan. Keep it simple but effective.
Activity 2
Propaganda is directed at both groups of people - those for and those against a cause. In this context, the spate of posters created during the Liberation War were calculated to have just as much of an effect on the Pakistani military as on the people of Bangladesh.
Imagine you are a Pakistani soldier in the Khan Sena, following orders to carry out all kinds of brutalities on the people of Bangladesh. You see the posters all around you. How are you affected by them?
Write a diary entry expressing some thoughts about the entire situation, particularly the impact of the posters.
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