A vintage television displaying an image of a sneaker with flowers growing out of it, and the caption "Language of Flowers Media Literacy" against a pink background.
TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY


β€œEducation is where the work of addressing antisemitism must begin.”

Jillian Segal - Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism

How do we stop THE ESCALATION OF

misinformation CAMPAIGNS?

We give students

the tools

to decode THEM.

Using our Co-Design Methodology, students deconstruct and rebuild media narratives through four key stages:

  • DISCOVER | Research Students analyse how media power and marketing narratives are engineered to influence public perception.

  • DEFINE | Identify Students isolate the hidden patterns and psychological mechanisms used to trigger emotional responses.

  • DEVELOP | Ideate Collaborative workshops allow students to co-design creative counter-narratives and symbolic responses.

  • DELIVER | Present Students produce and present professional-grade campaigns that demonstrate advanced critical thinking.

By mastering Media Mechanics, students cease to simply consume media

they gain the agency to author it.

TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers' above.

FABRICATED NARRATIVE CAMPAIGNS SINCE WW2

A black and white photo of Gustav Siegfried at a microphone in a recording studio, with a bright blue background on the right side containing text about his radio show and its impact.
Black and white image of Albert Einstein with hands clasped. TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers' above.

DECODING THE VISUAL NARRATIVE

β€˜PHOTOGRAPHY & The Beautiful Lie’

AN IMAGE MAY carrY an authority it has not earned.

It presents itself as evidence

while concealing every decision that produced it.

STUDENTS encounter hundreds of images each day.


DIGITALLY MANIPULATED to elicit emotional response.

AN EMOTIONAL response formS

BEFORE COGNITION BEGINS.

A white sneaker with flowers and greenery inside, with a small yellow flower placed near the toe.TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers' above.
A white sneaker with green plants and flowers growing out of it, on a white background.TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers' above.
A white sneaker shoe filled with green plants and flowers, with a small yellow flower laying in front of it on a light pink surface.

the Socratic method.

Through structured dialogue and carefully framed questions ASSUMPTIONS ARE EXAMINED.

learning SHIFTS from passive absorption to active interrogation

We do not lecture.

We ENGAGE.

IN a β€˜Brave Space’ OF deep inquiry and β€˜productive discomfort’

Restoring Valued Voices

This pROGRAM IS FOUNDED ON wenty months of development by Triple Axel in collaboration with Jewish educators, artists and community leaders

IN CONSULTATION WITH COMMUNITY LEADERS The program ADDRESSES the systemic marginalisation of Jewish voices within the arts SECTOR IN RECENT YEARS.

Two hands hold a sprig of gray-green eucalyptus leaves, surrounded by various types of greenery and small purple flowers on a blue background.TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers'

ENGAGE WAYS TO DISCOVER

  • Apply PROFESSIONAL studio lighting styling TECQNIQUES to understand how visual authority is manUFACTURED.

  • Manipulate Post-Production: Use design tools to reveal how digital editing shifts narrative intent.

  • Engineer Persuasion: Construct slogans and hashtags that frame opinion as objective fact.

  • Execute Launch & Critique: Present peer-to-peer campaign

  • Deconstruct Misinformation: Understand the internal construction of falsehoods to build cognitive resilience.

  • Analysis Critically assess adversarial narratives

  • Combat the Erosion of Empathy: Recognise how selective framing and contextual manipulation are used to promote division.

TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers' above. arranging green leaves, grasses, and small flowers inside a white sneaker.

From Passive Observation to Analytical Agency

Findings from the RMIT Beauty Myth project indicate a significant correlation between mechanical literacy and student well-being. This foundational phase demonstrated that when students move beyond passive consumption, a measurable improvement in cognitive and emotional health occurs.

Participants reported that developing the capacity to identify and critically assess digital manipulation had a substantive positive impact on their mental health.

TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers' above. flower arrangements on a pink backdrop, with various flowers, leaves, and a box of floral supplies scattered around.
TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers' above. Person sitting on the floor arranging flowers on a pink background.

Outcome Targets

  • Improvement in media literacy assessment scores

  • Increase in student-reported confidence in identifying and responding to harmful content

  • reduction in acceptance of dehumanising narratives

  • Positive educator evaluation indicating increased preparedness to address antisemitism and digital harm

TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes witTwo women sitting on the floor in front of a large red backdrop, surrounded by flowers, water bottles, and footwear. One woman is holding a phone, the other is arranging flowers.

TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of FlTwo women preparing for a photo shoot, one kneeling and the other standing in front of a red backdrop, with flowers and water bottles on the ground.

Design Thinking METHODOLOGY

Traditional instruction can be limited by positioning learners as passive observers of their own culture.

Co-design shifts this dynamic. By engaging learners as active participants rather than consumers, it creates the conditions for higher-order thinking, enabling critical analySIS OF their environment and contribute to a more respectful and resilient learning culture.

Warning indicators often precede

acts of RADICALISED violence.

Black and white illustration of Walter Benjamin with glasses and a mustache, TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with alongside the quote: "All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: War."

Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s analysis of the aestheticisation of politics, this framework supports the identification of escalation signals and early warning indicators.

This pilot aims to advance a preventative model comprising three integrated components:

Mechanical MEDIA Literacy
Develop technical competencies to deconstruct manipulated media, identify aesthetic framing strategies

Early Intervention
Equip students to recognise pathways of online radicalisation, including early-stage indicators

Social Infrastructure Development
Strengthen school communitY as informed, analytical environments

A woman holding a colorful pressed flower arrangement at a floral preservation workshop, with dried flowers and plants laid out on aTRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers' above.
Woman in denim overalls arranging dried flowers at a workspace, with another woman in the background in a floral craft space.TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers' above.
A woman working with dried flowers on a table in a flower workshop.TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers' above.

Summary Impact Statement

The Language of Flowers empowers participants to design their own simulated media campaigns

from the role of the target to the role of the Critical Author.

  • Deconstructing Influence: Participants gain the agency to recognise and dismantle the specific mechanisms used to engineer and weaponise misinformation.

  • EQUIPPED WITH THE essential skills required to identify and critically assess false narratives designed to manipulate the digital generation.

  • By mastering the process of construction, students build lasting resistance to digital prejudice

Two people arranging flowers on a pink floor with a pink backdrop, surrounded by flower TRIPLE AXEL MEDIA LITERACY flowers, green leaves, and ferns in shoes with the text 'The Language of Flowers
Photographer using a camera in a studio with large softbox lights, one on the left marked 'broncolor' and the other on the right, with a person in the background.

Co-Design methodology creates the safe, collaborative conditions required for students to move from passive consumers to active investigators & AUTHORS.

Co-Design METHODOLOGY


Styled and photographed

the composition IS AESTHETICALLY PLEASING

WITHOUT SOIL, SUNLIGHT OR WATER

The flowers APPEAR to BE thrivING

Yet they are already dying.

Arrangement of plants and shoes, including pink hibiscus flowers, green ferns, and a pair of sneakers and a pink bag, on a dark background.
A woman sitting on a pink floor arranging flowers in a white sneaker. Her face is not visible, wearing a striped top and ripped jeans, with a large green plant nearby.
Person arranging flowers with a pink background and a large white sneaker holding a floral arrangement, with various flowers and plants around.

Mapping

Phase 1: Foundational Scaffolding

  • Briefing: Students source a hostile vesselβ€”a discarded boot, rusted tin, or old handbag. A deliberate selection of an environment unsuited to support life.

  • Holocaust Museum: facilitated visit to the Melbourne Holocaust Museum (MHM) provides primary evidence of the consequences of dehumanising propaganda.

  • For schools unable to participate: in-school screening of MHM-produced content, on request

  • The Upstander Tool-Kit: Students are issued a Workbook to record reflections.

Phase 2: Active Agency

  • Forage & Selection: Students collect botanical flora from the school grounds. This act of selection counters the passivity often exploited by digital media.

  • Arrangement: Students engage in a simplified Ikebana practice. This provides a structured space for emotional regulation using three lenses:

    • Shin (The Truth): The spine of the arrangement and moral clarity.

    • Soe (The Human): individual perspective and how we see the world.

    • Hikae (The Reality): grounded reality of the hostile vessel.

Phase 3: Prototyping Deconstruction

  • The Hostile Transition: Students transplant their truthful arrangements into their hostile vessels. By omitting water and soil, they create an unsustainable environment.

  • Collaborative Styling: Students work in pairs to manipulate camera angles, ensuring the arrangement appears vibrant while the evidence of its decline remains out of frame.

Phase 4: Marketing Mechanics

  • Manufacturing Truth: Students use digital tools to artificially enhance the colour of petals, masking the physical effects of dehydration.

  • Branding & Slogans: Students craft high-recall phrases to define their arrangement’s brand identity. This demonstrates how marketing can bypass the rational mind to evoke an uncritical emotional response.

Phase 5: The Logic Engine

A facilitator-led dialogue to evaluate the reliability of media. Using the P.O.E.T. framework, students transition from producers to analysts.

Phase 6: Synthesis & Sustainable Agency

  • Presentation: Students mount an exhibition of their Beautiful Lie artifacts. Each image is accompanied by a Diagnostic Artist Statement that deconstructs the lie for the viewer.

  • Peer-to-Peer Transfer: Students facilitate a Lightning Talk for other year levels. By teaching the P.O.E.T. framework, they solidify their own cognitive resilience.

A person kneeling on a gray floor, looking at their phone, beside a black platform with a floral arrangement and discarded items, in an indoor setting.

students apply STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY & STYLING TECHNIQUES TO MANIPULATE THE TRUTH.

A woman in a photoshoot studio Camera, tripod, and lighting equipment.

Recommended TEXT FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Open book titled "Ruptured: Jewish Women in Australia Reflect on Life Post October 7" edited by Lee Kofman and Tamar Paluch, partially torn page visible, tablet, green pen, and another book titled "The Water Girl" on a metallic surface.

RUPTURED - Dr. Lee Kofman & Tamar Paluch

Senior Secondary (Year 10–12) or staff professional development

A Brilliant Life by Rachelle Unreich: A daughter’s portrait of Melbourne Holocaust survivor Mira Unreich, highlighting extraordinary resilience and enduring belief in human goodness despite systemic exclusion.

Ruptured edited by Lee Kofman and Tamar Paluch: An essay collection featuring Australian voices (Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Deborah Conway, Kerri Sackville) documenting how October 7 irrevocably altered lives and informing debates on social cohesion.

A BRILLIANT LIFE - Rachelle Unreich

Junior Secondary (Year 7 - 10) or staff professional development

A book titled 'A Brilliant Life' by Rachelle Unreich on a reflective glass table in a room with a laptop, a glass of water, and a fan in the background.

CREATIVE Pedagogical Capability
Equips educators with the confidence and tools to manage sensitive discussions and respond effectively to incidents in real time.

Three students in a library studying together, with bookshelves in the background, and the text 'Addressing antisemitism through education' overlaid.

Language of Flowers - Conclusion

By equipping students & educators with mechanical literacy strategies β€”the capacity to decode and critically assess digital narrativesβ€”the program moves beyond the limitations of anti-bullying responses.

For educators, it provides a targeted professional development pathway, delivering the analytical tools required to guide students within an increasingly complex information environment.

This methodology creates the conditions for a measurable shift: from passive consumption to active investigationβ€”strengthening the capacity of learning communities to navigate the digital landscape with clarity and confidence.

OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS

A white illustration of a harp with decorative leaves on a dark blue background, with the text "The King David School" below.
Logo for Courage to Care initiative with stylized hands in red, yellow, green, and blue above the text
Logo of the Jewish Museum of Australia featuring a stylized menorah and text 'Jewish Museum of Australia Gandel Centre of Judaica'.
Logo for UJEX Ambassador Program 2026 with stylized text and star symbol, on a light beige background.
Logo for City of Glen Eira City Council, featuring a teal square with 'City of Glen Eira' and 'Glen Eira' in bold white letters, and the words 'Glen Eira City Council' in black text to the right.
Logo of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum with text 'Judy & Leon Goldman Learning Centre' underneath.
A flyer for Goldstone Gallery, located at 41 Derby St, Collingwood, VIC 3066, Australia, with a logo at the top featuring a stylized face and the letter G.
Text that reads "Jewish Arts Quarter" in large black bold letters on a white background.
Text reading 'PROJECT A' with the words 'Activate, Advocate, Amplify' underneath, on a dark blue background.

THE KING DAVID SCHOOL - UJEB - GOLDSTONE GALLERY COLLINGWOOD- COURAGE TO CARE - CITY OF GLEN EIRA COUNCIL - JEWISH ARTS QUARTER - JEWISH MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA -MELBOURNE HOLOCAUST MUSEUM - PROJECT A

APPENDIX & EDUCATOR RESOURCES

EDMUND FINN

ADVOCATE FOR JEWISH COMMUNITY COLONIAL MELBOURNE

β€œI write not for the men of today, but for the children of tomorrow. To stay silent is to be a co-conspirator. If I cannot shout in the streets with a pike, I will whisper in the columns of the Herald until the governor’s ears bleed with the truth of his own incompetence”

β€” Edmund Finn - Irish Catholic author, journalist, newspaper editor Melbourne 1841 - 1889

An old black-and-white photograph of a woman dressed in a traditional judge's robe, seated with her left hand resting on a table and holding a rolled paper or document. She has a serious facial expression and wears a white wig, indicating a historical legal or judicial setting.

Pilot Facilitators

Photography and Media Literacy
Belle Stewart & Ramak Bamzar

Methodology
Modelled on the 2017–2019 RMIT University framework.

Focus
Students utilise photography and critical media literacy to decode professional marketing and visual persuasion strategies. This develops a cognitive defence against groupthink and the algorithmic pressures of digital media.

Wellness Strategy and Narrative Analysis
Eva Migdal

Methodology
Identity and Propaganda Deconstruction.

Focus
Students identify, analyse, and articulate how language and imagery are used to construct and reinforce propaganda across historical and contemporary contexts. This provides the social-emotional scaffolding required for informed, constructive engagement within community settings.

Street Epistemology and Literary Inquiry
Dr Lee Kofman

Methodology
Socratic inquiry and epistemic humility.

Focus
Utilising Street Epistemologyβ€”a conversational method grounded in the Socratic traditionβ€”students examine the reliability of their own belief-forming processes. This reframes classroom dynamics from emotional reactivity to structured, critical inquiry.

Today antisemitic activity in Australia has reached unprecedented and severe levels, solidifying a new, higher baseline for communal hostility. Data from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) and other security monitoring bodies confirms that the period between October 2024 and September 2025 saw the following trends:

Incident Volume and Spikes

  • Total Incidents: There were 1,654 reported anti-Jewish incidents in this 12-month window. While this was a slight decrease from the absolute peak of the year prior (2,062 incidents), it remained triple the rate of the decade average before 2023.

  • Persistent Threat: The volume established what researchers call an elevated plateau, where the daily frequency of harassment, graffiti, and abuse became a constant reality for the community.

Escalation to Physical Violence and Arson

The most critical shift in late 2024 and throughout 2025 was the move toward more destructive and lethal forms of antisemitism:

  • Arson and Vandalism: This year saw the highest number of arson and vandalism attacks on record (33 cases).

  • Bondi Beach Terror Attack (December 2025): While just outside the October cutoff, the climate leading up to this was defined by the first fatal antisemitic terror attack in Australian history, where gunmen killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney.

  • State-Linked Targets: In August 2025, the federal government and ASIO confirmed a positive link between several arson attacks (such as the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue) and the Iranian regime, noting that targets were specifically selected for their Jewish associations.

Institutional and Systemic Shifts

  • Educational Institutions: Reports from early 2026 indicate that racism became deeply embedded within schools and universities during the 2025 cycle. Only 6% of victims filed formal complaints, indicating a severe breakdown in institutional trust.

    Generational Gap:

  • By late 2025, public sentiment surveys (such as the ADL Global 100 Index) found that 50% of Australians aged 18–35 held heightened antisemitic viewsβ€”the highest proportion of any demographic and a significant increase over older generations.

Critical Intervention

Australia’s education system has moved beyond simple awareness and into a phase of active intervention.

  • Antisemitism Education Taskforce: Chaired by David Gonski AC, this taskforce is currently developing the Social Cohesion Hub, launching in June 2026, to provide teachers with resources and specific skills to intervene when they witness hate.

The Big Picture

In 2026, the Australian social contract is being tested within the classroom. Traditional anti-bullying policies are structurally inadequate against the sophisticated methods of online influence. Schools must now choose between being passive victims of algorithmic hostility or becoming fortified hubs of social resilience.

Photography as a Tool of Deception

Roland Barthes observed that a photograph says this was β€” not this was true. The camera records without interpreting, which means the interpretation is supplied entirely by context: caption, crop, placement, sequence. Remove the context and you can make any image mean almost anything.

Susan Sontag argued that photographic images of suffering do not build empathy β€” they exhaust it. The image substitutes for understanding rather than producing it. We see, we feel briefly, we scroll. Social media has perfected this mechanism. The infinite scroll of images simulates witness while producing numbness β€” which is precisely the condition in which propaganda thrives.

Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935) remains the definitive demonstration of what happens when aesthetic beauty is weaponised as moral argument. The film is cinematically extraordinary β€” its use of light, mass movement and scale is genuinely powerful β€” and it is in service of extermination. The beauty was not incidental. It was the case. The film said: this movement is sublime, therefore it is right. Pleasure was made to function as persuasion.

Key references

  • Roland Barthes β€” Camera Lucida (1980)

  • Susan Sontag β€” On Photography (1977) and Regarding the Pain of Others (2003)

  • Leni Riefenstahl β€” Triumph of the Will (1935, dir.)

  • Jacques Ellul β€” Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (1965)

  • Errol Morris β€” Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography (2011)

  • MIRRA Report β€” Antisemitism in the Cultural and Creative Industries (Monash ACJC, 2024)

Glossary of Terms

1. The Beautiful Lie | Aesthetic Propaganda

The act of using high production valueβ€”lighting, filters, and selective framingβ€”to mask an unsustainable or terminal reality.

2. The Crop | Selective Framing

A tactical decision of what to exclude from the frame. The Crop is the primary tool of misinformation. By removing contextβ€”the root systemβ€”an image of distress can be reframed as an image of aggression, or vice versa.

3. Doxa vs. EpistΔ“mΔ“

  • Doxa: Common belief or opinion that is accepted without questioning. An example is seeing a hateful symbol on a desk and dismissing it as just a prank.

  • EpistΔ“mΔ“: Justified true belief or knowledge. This is the transition from feeling that something is wrong to knowing the systemic history and harm it represents.

4. Street Epistemology

A conversational technique based on the Socratic method. Instead of telling someone they are wrong, which triggers defensiveness, students learn to ask: What is the method you used to arrive at that conclusion, and is that method reliable?

5. The P.O.E.T. Protocol

The core diagnostic tool for digital literacy:

  • P – Pause: Stop the emotional reaction triggered by the image.

  • O – Outcome: Identify what the creator wants you to feel or do.

  • E – Evidence: Look for what is missing from the frame such as water, roots, or context.

  • T – Test: Ask: If this same technique was used by someone I disagreed with, would I still believe it?

6. Peaceful Agency

The ability to remain logically grounded and ethically active in a polarised environment. It is the transition from being a passive consumer of media to an active architect of school culture.

7. Upstander Vocabulary

A specific set of scripts and terms students use to intervene in real time. This replaces generic anti-bullying phrases with precise language to identify dog whistles, coded propaganda, and dehumanisation.

8. Irrational or Hostile Vessel

A metaphor for environments that cannot support life, such as a shoe, a briefcase, or a digital echo chamber. It represents the structural reality that is often hidden beneath the aesthetic glow of a polished media post.

Provisions Included

  • Specialist Team: Delivery by three high-level practitioners - Belle Stewart, Eva Migdal and Lee Kofman (with guest artists from Jewish cancelled cohort) .

  • Pedagogical Framework: A multidisciplinary curriculum based on Belle Stewart’s RMIT 'The Beauty Myth' program, adapted for secondary students to build critical thinking and communication skills.

  • Research & Development: Access to a framework developed over 18 months specifically to address social cohesion and combat antisemitism in the current Australian 'intervention phase'.

2. The 'Upstander’s Tool-Kit’

  • Foundational Texts: Physical copies of either Ruptured or A Brilliant Life

  • Propaganda Workbook: Eva Migdal’s specialised Wellness Workbook - wellness mindset strategies for decoding visual, social media and peer misinformation.

  • Creative Supplies: High-quality materials for journaling, poetry, and reflective practice, including coloured pencils, felt tips and adhesive tape.

3. Mobile Media & Production Studio

  • Professional Lighting: Full studio lighting kits

  • Cinematic Backdrops: A suite of professional coloured backdrops

  • Ancillary Hardware: Props & Backup vessels (shoes, briefcases, tins)

4. Content & Immersive Resources

  • Film & Media: Exclusive access to a 20-minute immersive preamble & short film (for schools not opting for the MJHM site visit) to anchor historical context.

  • Supervised Foraging: Guided facilitation of the campus 'forage,' ensuring student agency is exercised safely within school grounds.

  • Socratic Inquiry Resources: Facilitator-led 'Street Epistemology - Poet’ sessions, developed 'Upstander Vocabulary' for real-time intervention

Education Provider Requirements

  • Space: A standard classroom or studio space that can be darkened for film screening/lighting setup.

  • AV: A screen and projector for the 'Stage 0' preamble.

  • Devices: Student mobile phones or school digital cameras.

  • Post Production - Adobe Express or PhotoShop

  • The 'Vessel': Students are briefed to bring their own 'irrational' vessel (e.g., a shoe or briefcase) as part of their pre-workshop engagement.

Black and white photo of three women, one of whom is in a wheelchair, with a camera, and a third woman is pushing the wheelchair on a flat surface outdoors. The woman with the camera is sitting in the wheelchair and looking through the viewfinder, while the other two women are on either side of her, one pushing the wheelchair and the other leaning over to watch. The sky is mostly clear with some clouds.
A woman with red hair, wearing a black hat and striped shirt, adjusting a studio light in a photography or art studio.

Belle Stewart

is an Australian photographer and educator with extensive experience across the creative media and education sectors. Her practice is informed by a strong ethical framework and a long-standing commitment to storytelling and community culture.

β€œAs a direct descendant of social justice advocates - including the Irish born writer Edmund Finn and 19th Century Jewish- Australian writer & educator Millie Finkelstein, my practice is the continuation of a century-long family tradition of advocacy, intellectual rigour, and civic responsibility.

My work as an Australian photographer and educator is deeply informed by this heritage, particularly the political culture of my great-great-grandfather, whose journalism in early Melbourne was defined by a commitment to the rights of minorities and a refusal to remain silent in the face of institutional incompetence.”