by J.B. Shurk, All News Pipeline:
Mass media technologies such as radio and television ushered in an era of State-engineered propaganda on a global scale. Any lingering allegiance to objective truth was eclipsed by the allure of powerful narratives. Narratives create false realities that incentivize humans to accept certain ideas or pursue certain actions that they would otherwise never accept or pursue if they were thinking clearly and confronting reality truthfully.
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Over the last century, television and radio have operated as gatekeeper technologies that effectively controlled who was permitted to construct false realities on a mass scale. In any country — from despotically communist to relatively free — the public is constantly bombarded with messages that reinforce certain narratives. Whether that narrative is that eating marshmallow cereal will make you happy or that “fossil fuels” are killing the planet, there is always an economic or political motive behind what you hear and see. In every nation, people with political and economic power have monopolized mass media so that they may monopolize the narrative influences that warp human minds. You will not find much on television that encourages you to think critically or question authorities. Television and radio are most effective when people question little and think even less.
The power of mass media takes advantage of human nature. Target audiences are presented with images and sounds that are naturally appealing. Then a new idea or suggested action is equated with the appealing scene, and the observer is unconsciously nudged to adopt the new behavior. For example, a commercial might show a happy family playing around the backyard swimming pool of a large house. Smiles and laughter abound. Smoke from barbecued meat drifts through the air and creates an imaginary aroma. Then an attractive mother looks to the camera and claims that she uses this product, or supports this politician, or believes in this idea. Because the staged family seems ideal, the viewer imagines herself as part of it, and while placing herself inside the narrative, she is subtly drawn to the product or concept being promoted. This is propaganda’s version of the Transitive Property of Equality: if the target identifies with the actors, and the actors identify with a product, then the target will identify with that product, too.
The news industry exploits a related phenomenon: intellectual insecurity. The primary target in this manipulation is news reporters themselves. You have surely noticed that a lot of well known pundits aren’t that smart. That’s intentional. The people who control public narratives don’t want celebrity thinkers; they want eager repeaters — people who mindlessly mimic whatever they’re told. At the same time, most news repeaters have big egos. That’s intentional, too. People whose egos are larger than they merit are particularly susceptible to manipulation.
They fall victim to what you might call the “lone genius effect.” In any gathering of people, if one person sounds convincingly more intelligent than everyone else, the surrounding group will accord that person with some measure of authority. What’s important is not whether the “lone genius” is telling the truth or even an actual genius, but rather that the group perceives the person to be intellectually superior. In the news industry, oversized egos are vulnerable to the propaganda of the “lone genius.” Because their psychological health depends upon a self-image of being smarter than they really are, they gravitate toward any individual who appears to be the real deal. Reporters’ intellectual insecurity makes them easy targets.
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