Browsed by
Category: In Practice

Revisiting an old topic: “How White Supremacists incited panic and fear using social media propaganda at the University of Missouri – Social Panic”

Revisiting an old topic: “How White Supremacists incited panic and fear using social media propaganda at the University of Missouri – Social Panic”

Back in 2016, fake social media posts from fake social media accounts were used to incite fear and hysteria, with attempts to start riots. I documented this in detail back in 2016.

Today we again have fake social media posts being used to incite violence, looting, arson and anarchy – none of which leads to productive solutions to bona fide injustices and societal problems. Social media is playing a central role in this non-productive destruction of our society – and is not providing a platform for problem resolution.

Public health messaging has been a mess

Public health messaging has been a mess

Public health’s messaging about all things corona virus has been a fiasco of inconsistent, contradictory, incoherent and unclear communications. Every aspect has been a disaster. Experts in risk communication say the same thing – it just been one big mess.

Journalism: CNN settles lawsuit with Nick Sandmann

Journalism: CNN settles lawsuit with Nick Sandmann

CNN and many media outlets falsely reported on a confrontation that occurred in Washington DC in January 2019. The media had the story backwards, reversed from what actually occurred, with many media outlets falsely accusing students of racism. Today, CNN has settled the lawsuit filed against them. Several related lawsuits remain pending.

Climate communications: “The Trouble With Climate Emergency Journalism | Issues in Science and Technology”

Climate communications: “The Trouble With Climate Emergency Journalism | Issues in Science and Technology”

A paper in a journal published by the National Academy of Sciences faults journalists for focusing on dystopian, catastrophic, fear inducing dramatization of future climate projections – while failing to present the likelihood (or lack of likelihood) of such scenarios and the uncertainty presented in the science papers and conferences. It is gratifying to see others at a higher pay grade than I are also seeing that stories designed to create emotional outrage and responses are a turn off and counter productive to effective climate communications.

Propaganda: How dark chocolate was turned into health food

Propaganda: How dark chocolate was turned into health food

How did dark chocolate become a health food in the United States? Industry funded studies finding obscure benefits were then touted by press release, then rewritten into health food stories by news reporters. It’s been a highly successful propaganda campaign that turned high fat, high sugar foods into health foods (contrary to the earlier meme that high fat and sugar foods are bad for us).

Propaganda methods: Framing the story

Propaganda methods: Framing the story

We all have “frames” of reference that describe various life scenarios. When we walk into a restaurant we have a “frame” that pretty much explains how we expect the restaurant experience to go. We each carry around a lot of subconscious “frames” about how we think the world works. Effective propaganda messaging links to the frames we expect the target to already have. This is not all that surprising but what is old is now new again 🙂