Agency and Structure: Media as a Tool of Power on Scientific Dissemination in Disney Movies from the 1950s

• Grant number: 24/10998-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education
• Principal Investigator: Juliano Camillo
• Grantee: Felipe Sanches Lopez
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Scientific dissemination plays a significant role in providing the population with access to scientific knowledge; however, caution must be taken to prevent its discourse from approaching a denialist discourse. Historically, various resources have been employed to disseminate scientific knowledge in society. For example, throughout the 1950s, the urgency of the United States to strengthen its scientific education became evident, due to the technical-scientific competition with the Soviet Union. During this period, Disney studios produced animations about science to influence public perception and use them as a means of scientific dissemination for propaganda purposes. In this context, the films and science education projects conceived at the time aimed to improve national security and promote technological development, addressing the shortage of scientists and technicians. This research project is based on the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and the Gramscian concept of hegemony to examine how the films served as instruments for shaping social consensus about science, contributing to the construction of a public image that valued science as a career for national development and security. The proposed investigation aims to identify the educational dimension present in the scientific dissemination of Disney films of the 1950s, seeking to understand how these animations contributed to achieving the objectives of the US project. The results will be obtained through Document Analysis and Film Analysis, and the aim is to enrich the understanding of scientific dissemination as an educational practice, providing tools to analyze the problems of contemporary scientific dissemination.