Propaganda & Media Effects

[diggronpaul]

I've notice some threads and discussions popping up regarding media and it's impact on the public. I found this summary document and the following excerpt which may be of interest:



“Media Theory and Theorists” (p8)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/11711855/Media-Theory

Studying the effect of media texts on an audience may produce the following behavior, according to Price:

1.Socialization
is where the mass media help to introduce an individual into social behavior by presenting norms of behavior

2.Social control
is the way the media reproduces the social order by reinforcing the status quo, as most institutions force out dissent

3.Agenda setting
is a more indirect process where the media selects events or issues which merit attention and is a means of doing 1 and 2 above.

4.Moral panics
are effects which are supposed to emerge when the media consistently represents a subgroup as dangerous or deviant and the general population attribute all kinds of social ill on them (Road Rage, Trolley Rage, stalkers, killer dogs etc.)

5.Attitude Change
where the public is imagined to be vulnerable to persuasive messages so that changes in attitude towards a range of issues may be effected. Often associated with political campaigns.

6.Behavioral change
is meant to occur as a result of traumatic exposure to media input which is exciting or distressing or as a result of a successful alteration in the way people think about an issue thus preparing them to action their new perceptions (famine victims in Ethiopia, Bosnia war crime victims).

p.338, Media Studies by Stuart Price (1993)

[MsDoodahs]

Looks interesting, will read this later.

Thanks for posting it.

:)

[ourlongroad]

This is good, it places some context around how the media affects change.

[cthulhufan]

Very, very cool. Thanks for posting.

[heavenlyboy34]

thanx, OP! :)

[ourlongroad]

This clip in particular seems very applicable here


"effects which are supposed to emerge when the media consistently
represents a subgroup as dangerous or deviant and the general
population attribute all kinds of social ill on them"


Isn't this what the media just did to the Tea Parties?

[Jace]

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[diggronpaul]

If you follow the American media closely, you will notice that there are plenty of disagreements and conflicts between the left or the right, but a few areas of agreement..
Why limit perceptions and interpretations within a contrived frame work, called left vs right?

[risk_reward]

If you follow the American media closely, you will notice that there are plenty of disagreements and conflicts between the left or the right, but a few areas of agreement. Through the fog of propaganda, it is in the areas of agreement where the interests of the propagandists lie.

Both left and right in the mainstream media will circle the wagons and attack in unison when these areas of agreement are questioned. Questioning the areas of agreement results in vicious name-calling and the end of rational discussion.

Read the newspapers closely and pay attention to your television and radio stations to find the areas of agreement.

The areas of agreement are:

Trade policy -- Both left and right agree that the American market must remain open to the products of all nations, even if those nations close their markets to us. Any questioning of our trade policy results in discussion-ending insults, such as: protectionist, isolationist, xenophobe, Nazi -- often accompanied with unsubstantiated absolutes about Smooth-Hawley and the Great Depression.

Immigration -- We are a nation of immigrants, we are told by our school books and media (although Americans have always resisted waves of immigrants imported by oligarchs in need of wage-busting cheap labor). Anyone who questions the negative effects of mass immigration (lower wages, higher cost of living, higher taxes, etc.) is ridiculed as a redneck, xenophobe or racist. While the mainstream media is full of reports of the suffering of immigrants -- even illegal immigrants -- any discussion of the negative effects of immigration is taboo and met with angry ridicule and threats.

Foreign Policy -- America must remain engaged in the world (interventionism), and it must station tens of thousands of troops in foreign nations lest Nazis rise up and commit genocide again and threaten our shores and our wives and children and our way of life. Anyone who advocates a non-interventionist foreign policy (Ron Paul) is an isolationist or possibly a Nazi sympathizer. However, it is OK to be a harsh critic of American foreign policy (Noam Chomsky) as long as you continue promote interventionism abroad and constantly invoke Hitler and the Nazis.

The Holocaust -- It is essential for all American media outlets to regularly remind Americans of the Holocaust. Although Jews owe a great debt to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died in Europe fighting Nazis, according to our media in every Christian American there lurks an anti-semite lusting to commit genocide if not constantly reminded of the evils of Auschwitz.
Keep a tally of how many times you hear about the Holocaust in the American media from month to month -- as opposed to the Armenian Holocaust, Stalin's purges of tens of millions of Christians, Mao's slaughter of tens of millions, the current Holocaust in the Congo, the ethnic cleansing in Palestine, or even the genocide during the African slave trade to the Americas. Tally which genocide is given the most prominence in the American media -- and you will know whose lives our media deems most important.

Who in this country can criticize without repercussion? Who cannot be criticized without retaliation? If you can answer those questions, you will know who holds true power.

I am not sure what your intent was with this post, but you are making the impression of being a xenophobe.




Definition of xenophobe (just in case anyone wonders) - A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

[heavenlyboy34]

Why limit perceptions and interpretations within a contrived frame work, called left vs right?

Because plenty of RPFers still haven't awakened yet. :(:p

[tpreitzel]

Who in this country can criticize without repercussion? Who cannot be criticized without retaliation? If you can answer those questions, you will know who holds true power.

The two-headed beast always agrees on bigger government which the media incessantly promotes. Today, we, the people, that Insist on reacquiring our constitutional responsibilities are labeled terrorists by governments and their mouthpiece, the mass media. Naturally, governments whether local, state, national, or supranational never want to relinquish power once usurped from the people. Essentially, the purpose of the mass media is to mold a people dependent on government.

[Jace]

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[Jace]

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