|
Media manipulation is an aspect of public relations in which partisans create an image or argument that favours their particular interests. Such tactics may include the use of logical fallacies and propaganda techniques, and often involve the suppression of information or points of view by crowding them out, by inducing other people or groups of people to stop listening to certain arguments, or by simply diverting attention elsewhere. Public relations (PR) is the business, organizational, philanthropic, or social function of managing communication between an organization and its audiences. ...
Look up fallacy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One U.S. propaganda poster, which warns against civilians sharing information on troop movements (National Archives) The much-imitated 1914 Lord Kitchener Wants You! poster Swedish Anti-Euro propaganda for the referendum of 2003. ...
As illustrated below, many of the more modern Mass media manipulation methods are types of distraction, on the assumption that the public has a limited Attention span. This article does not cite its references or sources. ...
Attention span is the amount of time a person can concentrate on a single activity. ...
Distraction types
Distraction by nationalism - See main article at Transfer (propaganda)
This is a variant on the traditional ad hominem and bandwagon fallacies applied to entire countries. The method is to discredit opposing arguments by appealing to nationalistic pride or memory of past accomplishments, or appealing to fear or dislike of a specific country, or of foreigners in general. It can be very powerful as it discredits foreign journalists (the ones that are least easily manipulated by domestic political or corporate interests).[citation needed] Portrait of Bill Clinton, the American flag placed nonchalantly in the background Transfer is a technique used in propaganda and advertising. ...
It has been suggested that Personal attack be merged into this article or section. ...
The Argumentum ad numerum or argument from numbers is a logical fallacy that consists of the assertion that the more people who accept or believe an assertion, the more likely that assertion is to be true. ...
Nationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. ...
- Example: "You want to know what I really think of the Europeans?" asked the senior United States State Department official. "I think they have been wrong on just about every major international issue for the past 20 years." [1].
- Example: "Your idea sounds similar to what they are proposing in Turkey. Are you saying the Turks have a better country than us?"
- Example: "The only criticisms of this proposed treaty come from the United States. But we all know that Americans are arrogant and uneducated, so their complaints are irrelevant."
This article is 150 kilobytes or more in size. ...
The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, equivalent to foreign ministries in other countries. ...
Straw man fallacy - See main article at Straw man
The "straw man fallacy" is the lumping a strong opposition argument together with one or many weak ones to create a simplistic weak argument that can easily be refuted. A straw man argument is a logical fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponents position. ...
- Example: Grouping all opposed to the 2003 invasion of Iraq as "pacifists", so they can be refuted by arguments for war in general. As with most persuasion methods, it can easily be applied in reverse, in this case, to group all those who supported the invasion together and label them as "warmongers" or "lackeys of the United States".
Combatants Coalition Forces: United States United Kingdom South Korea Australia Poland Romania others. ...
Distraction by scapegoat - See main article at Scapegoat
A combination of straw man and ad hominem, in which your weakest opponent (or easiest to discredit) is considered as your only important opponent. The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt, 1854. ...
A straw man argument is a logical fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponents position. ...
It has been suggested that Personal attack be merged into this article or section. ...
- Example: If many countries are opposed to our actions, but one of them (say, France) is obviously acting out of self-interest, mention mostly France. As with most persuasion methods, it can easily be applied in reverse, in this case, attempting to discredit George W. Bush in order to discredit the entire coalition against Iraq.
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ...
Distraction by phenomenon A risky but effective strategy summarized best, perhaps, by David Mamet's 1997 movie Wag the Dog, by which the public can be distracted, for long periods of time, from an important issue, by one which occupies more news time. When the strategy works, you have a war or other media event taking attention away from misbehaving or crooked leaders. When the strategy does not work, the leader's misbehavior remains in the press, and the war is derided as an attempted distraction. David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and film director. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. ...
William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ...
Motto none Anthem Intermeco Bosnia and Herzegovina() on the European continent() — [] Capital (and largest city) Sarajevo Official languages Bosnian Croatian Serbian Government Parliamentary democracy - Presidency members Nebojša Radmanović1 Haris Silajdžić2 Željko Komšić3 - Chairman of the Council of Ministers Nikola Špirić - High Representative 4 Independence...
The Monica Lewinsky scandal was a political-sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a then 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. ...
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ...
Distraction by Semantics This involves using euphmemistically pleasing terms to obscure the truth. For example saying "choice" or "reproductive rights" instead of the accurate term "abortion", or "pro-life" instead of "anti-abortion". A common example is from the antibellum south when people commonly referred to "states rights" instead of "slavery".
Other types
Marginalization - See main article at Appeal to authority
This is a widespread and subtle form of media manipulation: simply giving credence only to "mainstream" sources of information; it exists in many news outlets. Information, arguments, and objections that come from other sources are simply considered "fringe" and ignored, or their proponents permanently discredited, or accused of having their own agenda. An appeal to authority or argument by authority is a type of argument in logic, consisting on basing the truth value of an otherwise unsupported assertion on the authority, knowledge or position of the person asserting it. ...
- Example: "I think there are a lot of people out there who feel the way I do, but haven't wanted to come forward because they're afraid of being identified with a fringe group..." Langley said. "I don't believe in all the things that all the (anti-war) groups stand for, but we all do share one thing in common: I do believe that this war is wrong." [2]
Demonisation of the opposition - See Obtain disapproval within the article Propaganda
This is a more general case of distraction by nationalism. Opposing views are ascribed to an out-group or hated group, and thus dismissed out of hand. This approach, carried to extremes, becomes a form of suppression, as in McCarthyism, where anyone disapproving of the government was considered "un-American" and "Communist" and was likely to be denounced. An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One U.S. propaganda poster, which warns against civilians sharing information on troop movements (National Archives) The much-imitated 1914 Lord Kitchener Wants You! poster Swedish Anti-Euro propaganda for the referendum of 2003. ...
A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the dangers of a Communist takeover. ...
- Example: The consignment of almost all dissent to the "International Jewish conspiracy" by Nazi Germany.
- Example: Labelling all those opposed to Neocon policies as left-wing, making use of existing prejudices against Communists.
- Example: Labelling of Conservative Party of Canada MPs as "Republicans" or "Neocons" by left-wing Liberal or NDP members.
Neoconservatism describes several distinct political ideologies which are considered new forms of conservatism. ...
In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition...
This article is about communism as a form of society, as an ideology advocating that form of society, and as a popular movement. ...
The Conservative Party of Canada (French: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a right-leaning conservative political party in Canada, formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in December 2003. ...
Googlewashing - See main article at Googlewashing
This is a new word coined by Andrew Orlowski of The Register in April of 2003 [3] to describe the alleged practice of changing the meaning of a meme (in this example, Second Superpower) by web-publishing a well-linked article using the term in an inoffensive manner, stripped of its political significance. Google has also been observed to exclude certain sites from the search function (notably Google.fr and or Google.de).[4] A screen shot of the results of searching for Miserable failure on Google. ...
Andrew Orlowski (born 1966) is a British columnist for the online IT newspaper The Register. ...
Current logo of The Register. ...
The term meme (IPA: , rhyming with theme; commonly pronounced in the US as , rhyming with gem), coined/popularized in 1976[1] by the biologist Richard Dawkins, refers to a unit of cultural information which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes (i. ...
The Second Superpower is a term used to conceptualize a global civil society (including the anti-globalization movement or global justice movement) as a counterpoint to the United States of America. ...
People concerned about media manipulation have promoted the teaching of media literacy to teach about the above techniques and thus make them less effective with people thus educated. Media literacy is the process of accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of forms. ...
See also Censorship is the removal or withholding of information from the public by a controlling group or body. ...
The US Bill of Rights guarantees the rights of citizens to speak and publish freely. ...
SourceWatchs logo features a magnifying glass through which its name can be seen. ...
Cover of Bernays 1928 book, Propaganda. ...
A front organization (or organisation), also known as a front group (if it is structured to look like a voluntary association); a front company, a shell corporation or simply a front (if it is structured to look like a company), is any entity set up by and controlled by another...
In political parlance, a gatekeeper or left gatekeeper is an activist or organization that acts within the larger milieu of a political movement, in order to manage, constrain and co-opt the movement, often on behalf of the Establishment opponents of that movement. ...
Ad Council Americas Army, video game produced by the U.S. government with the stated aim of encouraging players to become interested in joining the U.S. Army. ...
An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ...
Indoctrination is instruction in the fundamentals of a system of belief (such as a philosophy, religion or science). ...
A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the dangers of a Communist takeover. ...
Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American political-activist, a film director, author, social commentator, and political humorist. ...
The term meme (IPA: , rhyming with theme; commonly pronounced in the US as , rhyming with gem), coined/popularized in 1976[1] by the biologist Richard Dawkins, refers to a unit of cultural information which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes (i. ...
News management is the process by which individuals and organizations (especially political parties) control information and their interactions with the news media to achieve some strategic objective. ...
Avram Noam Chomsky, Ph. ...
Nostradamus: original portrait by his son Cesar Michel de Nostredame (December 14, 1503 – July 2, 1566), usually Latinized to Nostradamus, was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous world-wide. ...
Some web pages have a robots exclusion file, which enables website operators to tell internet search engines to stay away from certain files. ...
In public relations, spin is a usually pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in ones own favor of an event or situation that is designed to bring about the most positive result possible. ...
Under color of authority is a legal phrase indicating that a person is claiming, or allowing to be inferred, that the acts he or she is committing are related to and legitimized by their role as a legitimately appointed agent of governmental power. ...
Media Transparency is the concept of determining how and why information is conveyed through various means. ...
Notes - ^ [1] New York Times article
- ^ [2] SF Chronicle: "Anti-War Forces Get New Recruit"
- ^ [3] The Register: "Anti-war slogan coined, repurposed and Googlewashed in 42 days"
- ^ [4] Harvard Law School: "Specific Sites Excluded from Google.fr and/or Google.de"
|
Feeds |
Contact