The Joe Biden Diary

https://exploringyourmind.com/how-were-manipulated-by-the-media/

How should we think?

We think about the stories we’re interested in and care about based on the information that we previously had or that’s within our immediate reach. We evaluate the  information we get from the media and contrast it with our prior opinions. Unless it’s very powerful or we already have certain doubts, it’s not going to change the way we thought about it before we heard that story.

If someone had already formed an idea about what happened in Rwanda, the information we presented at the beginning of this article wouldn’t change their opinion. But what if you weren’t familiar with the event or only had a vague idea about what happened? Then it’s more likely that the media will lead you to think about it in a certain way.

The role of heuristics

When the stories are relevant, the information is processed through a central path and contrasted with previously known information.

When it’s not relevant, the information is processed through a peripheral route. This is when heuristics come into play, as our opinion about the event will depend on the peripheral cues involved in the story.

When the source of the news is considered reliable, as in the case of the Rwandan genocide, we’ll be more likely to believe the information. If I am the source and the readers don’t trust me, they either won’t believe it, or they’ll have some reservations about it. 

In the news, terms such as war, genocide, and massacre are often used. These key words give rise to very negative emotions when you think about the story, giving you a bad image of the Hutu people. The negative feeling wouldn’t be as strong if the word “conflict” had been used instead of “war.”

When statistics are presented in the form of a percentage, the news seems more negative. If raw numbers had been provided without being presented as relative to the total, the impact would have been smaller. Reporting the catalyst of the events make people blame the Hutus. If the story had said that the people who had appointed the Hutus to the government were Europeans, maybe the Europeans would have been blamed more.

Every word counts in a news story, and the repercussions will vary depending on how much attention you give it and how much prior knowledge you had. The media’s power of persuasion can be very strong if you’re not aware of those mental processes. Also, being aware of them doesn’t stop the media from trying to control them from the outside, but it does make it possible for you to intervene.

So, the Media for sure controls what you discuss and think about and see.  Then it usually will only emphasize the way you already feel.

Absolutely they control this to a very large degree.  People will almost always tend to discuss what the news keeps in the forefront.  It is the perspective of their views that then can be manipulated.

Look at any issues:  Covid, school teaching, protests, political issues and campaigns, abortion, even now the trans stuff, mass shootings, crime rate, illegals.  Look at how much more accepting the folks on the Right have become over time about all of this issues from abortion to education to illegals.

Of course, they are being controlled to a certain extent.  That is not even debatable.  Yes, the Left will not see it as much because their views tend to align, mostly, with the National Media -- in any country.  The Right hardly realize how much more accepting on things they would never consider 30-40 years ago, or even 10 years ago now.

So, it is also manipulation of the Right by the Leftist Media that is the issue NOT as much the other way around -- so not as noticeable or acknowledgeable to them.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200512-how-the-news-changes-the-way-we-think-and-behave

https://monitormag.ca/articles/whoever-controls-the-media-controls-the-mind

Conn Hallinan, a columnist with Foreign Policy in Focus, a project of the Washington, D.C.–based Institute for Policy Studies, tells me that when Ben Bagdikian published his book The New Media Monopoly in 2004, there were 100 corporations controlling media outlets in the U.S. As of September 2020, six corporations control 90 per cent of media outlets in the U.S.: AT&T, CBS, Comcast, Disney, News Corp and Viacom.

Hallinan adds that “people read what those [six] corporations want them to read, and corporations like lower taxes, fewer financial and environmental regulations, in short, whatever makes them the most money. Since profits are the bottom line, staffs are cut back, papers are merged, and stories dumbed down to not upset anyone. So fewer papers, fewer reporters, tighter budgets (which means no investigative reporting) and a less informed population. Because democracy only works when people are informed enough to make choices, democracy is diminished.”

Nolan Higdon, who co-authored a book about the U.S. media with Huff titled The United States of Distraction (2019), agrees that the country is not a democracy, and this is partly due to media concentration. 

As Higdon puts it, “Americans hear almost nothing about what is going on overseas.” He points out how, with very few foreign correspondents on the ground, legacy media now rely extensively on military and intelligence experts: “These are folks who have a vested interest in perpetuating war and denigrating the so-called enemy. Since most people in news media are trained on how to sound like experts…Americans receive military talking points as journalism.”

This sort of view has been around for ages and said in many different ways.  But this is very key:

“Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state.” This quote has often been attributed to Adolf Hitler. Whether or not he said it is beside the point. As sinister as it sounds, it’s widely held that, “he alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” Educating children is an investment. And there are many trying to invest in your children today. So, what are we allowing them to put into their textbooks? What sort of state, what sort of future, are we allowing them to create? And what are we going to do about it?

Influencing the youth over time has been no more evident than in the USA in the last decade or so, especially with the advent of social media.

@THEMUGG

 I think your reply (this is not meant as an insult) is due to your personal biases and partisan views. When I read what you wrote the exact thought came into my head. I do not "find" left media any more than I find right media...to me one is not more available than another in fact given where I live I find a strong strong right bias here in general. Media is not just a TV network and an editorial agenda it is much more than just a tv show. I consider media to be what you find out in the big world in any shape or form, outside your own circle of living what you experience. It might be that where you live the general population, the political landscape and overall might be more liberal where I find it completely the opposite.

As for tv shows I dont watch much news/political tv...my wife has preferences on what she likes so I see some of that but my immediate bias is to discount everything I see which has editorial input and consider what is being said to be inaccurate and that there is a narrative and bias so I minimize it and consider that in how I take in media..I do that in most every input, I see and I consider the source and the bias and the motivation and then evaluate based on a moderate approach about society as a whole and what makes sense.

I also keep my personal religious and most political views in my own circle I do not try to influence or persuade in general. If there is discussion or a topic sure I will pipe in but I dont consider it appropriate to force my will on a society rather I try to make a positive, optimistic impact in social situations and most circumstances. I think very very very few people live their lives this way and that is why idiot media inputs have impact...people want to verify their biases, they want to put their biases, religious beliefs and positions onto others and in doing so this causes separation and divide plus it makes media companies billions in profits from viewership.

Hi , hello , how are you ? and I hope that your day is going well 

This conversation is extremely intoxicating and I am enjoying the fresh air of free speech with all of it’s mighty dominance and king royalty being put on full display …..

like a burlesque cabaret show…. done tastefully 

unfortunately , ideas and opinions come just like body types , in all different shapes and sizes …..

so don’t let all the “ big buts “ in these discussions sway you from enjoying the show ….

have a gander . Because like the girl with the large bazookas and the tassels …. It is indeed eye opening …

@wallstreetcappers

  I agree about the "personal bias". In truth, I never really thought I was much more than a "middle of the road" person.......til about maybe 10 years ago. I started paying more attention to politics when I got closer to retirement. Washington has been a dem state for decades now, but the last decade has been really liberal. I don't align myself with the right just because I don't like lefties. I don't even know how most of my friends lean.......never really a topic for us. It just turns out that more of my values lean that way. I've been employed for 3/4 of my life. After a while, you get tired of people bitching that they aren't given enough.

 I never even knew how biased the media stations were til I started watching during the riots. I witnessed the rioting in multiple cities live on fox, while the other stations carried their normal programming. Then the next a.m., the "other" stations did mop up duty & claimed it was no big deal. I had a "but that's not true" moment (Think Amber in "The Running Man") when one reporter claimed it was "police aggression" that caused one night of rioting. That's when I found out there's bias in the media. I'm not claiming Fox is any kind of hero,......they're certainly biased. It's just that they showed what was really happening while the others either ignored it or downplayed it.

 I almost wish I'd never started paying attention to politics.

I'm in the same boat. Over 41 years going to work, coming home and maybe catching local and NBC news. Too busy to pay attention. Didn't even vote in 2016. Hillary or Trump?? Forget it!

Then I retire. Start paying a little more attention. Trump says "fake news" and I wonder WTF is wrong with him. Then I see it, over and over. MSNBC "it's mostly a peaceful protest" with huge fires burning in the background. David Dorn gets killed and its ignored. But before that it was dangerous anti-lockdown protestors threatening violence and the further spread of COVID. Then suddenly it was OK to protest for George Floyd death and the same governor who locked us down was now marching arm in arm. It was peaceful protests until they couldn't hide it anymore. Then is was white supremacy's fault. 

Estimated at 2 billion dollars damage these "peaceful" protests were the costliest ever. 

From lab theory is tin foil hat conspiracy to 51 former intel officials say laptop looks like Russian I've never seen so much bullshit. 

"Lets go Brandon." ...........Sums it up.

@THEMUGG, @UNIMAN

Why do you think I bugged out of here?

Relax & do what you can do to enjoy the rest of your lives.

but but but some don't ever see it

some here deny it

Media has been dem propaganda for a while now

Intelligent people know better

another doozy

@thirdperson

  thanks for the fact checking  

of course we already know fux news cannot b trusted and this was proven recently     again      so its laughable that anyone would use them as a beacon of truth and honest journalism

@Midnight1

  Thank goodness summer is finally here. It'll certainly be easier to avoid watching tv now.

@UNIMAN

@wallstreetcappers

spot on once again !   

The trick is don't let the nonsense here bother you. And don't dwell on it. 

Really enjoying myself right now with winter gone. Hope you and your family are too.

Wall, you don't even understand the problem clearly, and I never said the media "controls" people or their lives.    Hell, the press doesn't even "control" people's lives in communist countries, but it "does" greatly "influence" their way of thinking via state-run propaganda.  Some might even argue our country is already there, but the press definitely "filters" the news to benefit how the public perceives republicans & democrats.  I said it earlier, perhaps in another threat, the Biden laptop saga and the DOJ/FBI decision to lie and divert the truth AND to have the press's compliance to stay silent on the subject speaks volumes....  

You folks on the left are too naive to even realize this is occurring.   

You can say media doesn't control people but it does. It's the sheep that let them be controlled. Most people cannot think for themselves so they let other do it for them or let it influence them. That is the majority of the people. Those who are critical thinkers know not to believe everything they read or hear but unfortunately the world is made up of far more sheep then there is critical thinkers. It's a leader versus followers. Most will follow by nature and few will lead.

Because of the way the media portrays itself it is easy to influence the sheeple. Most don't view it as entertainment or one viewpoint of a situation but rather if it is on the news or in the news it must be true. The world is full of different people and you could have 10 people view the same video or listen to the same conversation and you would most likely have 10 different viewpoints of what they saw or heard.

Gump said it best, life is a box of chocolates. Not all of them are good but when you find one that is you almost feel lucky.  

"sheeple" indeed  

Social media giants admit to using algorithms to steer people, so in a way yes .