Browsed by
Category: Propaganda Methods

The first story is the one that is remembered, even if wrong

The first story is the one that is remembered, even if wrong

TL;DR Summary A media outlet ran a story with the headline “”Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point Scholarship“, based in part on muddled comments from Ben Carson that were not clear. The false version of the story was picked up by media and spread rapidly on social media. The story was eventually shown as incorrect and prominent media called the story a “lie”. But the damage was done. Propagandists know that the first message received by the target, even if…

Read More Read More

How “public relations” uses propaganda

How “public relations” uses propaganda

While much social media propaganda is created by amateurs, much is also created by professionals who have titles like “Public Relations Officer”, “Communications Director”, “Press liaison”, “Spokesperson” and what not. Here is an example of how the MPAA planned to organized a propaganda campaign against Google (because Google searches enabled people to find copyrighted material): “Media: We want to make sure that the media is at the NAAG meeting. We propose working with MPAA (Vans), Comcast, and NewsCorp (Bill Guidera)…

Read More Read More

About 60% of headlines on social media are not clicked, meaning the headline is the message

About 60% of headlines on social media are not clicked, meaning the headline is the message

Key points about social media (and how this applies to the dissemination of propaganda) from peer reviewed research: Information is shared rapidly on social media, most of it within just a few hours of it first appearing online Information that is shared on social media continues to live for a long time, generating subsequent click thrus for days and weeks in to the future. Information shared on social media is long lived – that is, generates click throughs back to…

Read More Read More

Profit behind social media fake news and propaganda

Profit behind social media fake news and propaganda

Banning fake-news sites doesn’t address the real problem: Social-media companies make big money off lies and hate. Source: Fake News and Online Harassment Are More Than Social Media Byproducts—They’re Powerful Profit Drivers This is a good article and catches up with where we were a year ago! But like all articles on the topic, this one also leaves out mention of perhaps the largest for profit, online social-media based fake news publisher (nearly 4.8 million Facebook subscribers). I’ve mentioned them…

Read More Read More

Up to 76% of hiring managers profile job candidates on social media

Up to 76% of hiring managers profile job candidates on social media

Be careful about what you post online. Up to 76% of hiring managers review the social media posts of job applicants: Hiring managers in information technology and sales are the most likely to use social networks to screen candidates; professional and business services were least likely. IT: 76 percent Sales: 65 percent Financial services: 61 percent Health care: 59 percent Retail: 59 percent Manufacturing: 56 percent Professional and business services: 55 percent Source: Number of Employers Using Social Media to…

Read More Read More

Too complicated, TL;DR. Way too detailed.

Too complicated, TL;DR. Way too detailed.

TL; DR Summary If you need to spend more than 5-10 seconds to gather the propaganda message, then the message is a failure. This poster is a big failure. This poster originates from a right-wing leaning group. It’s propaganda method is basically to present lots of facts. In terms of effectiveness, this poster is awful. Far too detailed, far too complex, way too much tiny print. Nearly impossible to figure out the message.

“Click Bait” “fake news” operation employs 11 writers

“Click Bait” “fake news” operation employs 11 writers

These fake news sites are apparently more profitable than “real news” web sites. One of the websites that ended up on a widely-shared list of “fake news” purveyors is run out of a house in Seattle. Source: Seattle’s own ‘click-bait’ news site serves up red meat for liberals And employs 11 writers and makes tons of money. As we have been saying, for profit, social media-based, emotionally laden publishing has been around a long time and crosses the full political…

Read More Read More

Social media users tend to share news that confirms their beliefs, even if the news is false

Social media users tend to share news that confirms their beliefs, even if the news is false

If internet users are predisposed to believe false information that confirms their prejudices — and if they enthusiastically take part in spreading conspiracy theories — then falsehoods may be endemic to mass online communication platforms. This issue is more difficult for Facebook, whose algorithms rely heavily on a social signal that comes from what a user’s friends are sharing. If its users promote unreliable information — particularly if it is not easily categorised as “news” — it will spread rapidly….

Read More Read More

Breitbart, Occupy Democrats among list of alleged fake, news sites 

Breitbart, Occupy Democrats among list of alleged fake, news sites 

[Professor] Zimdars puts the news sites into four categories. Category one deals with sites that rely on “outrage culture”, using distorted headlines or misleading information. Category two are sites that “circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information.” Category three is for more click-bait type websites that still deliver questionable information. And category four deals with satires news site like The Onion. The satires sites are included into the list because Zimdars thinks they sometimes contribute to the cycle of misinformation. The list includes…

Read More Read More

Media and social media’s “outrage culture”

Media and social media’s “outrage culture”

We have a media system that loves to yell and scream. It is basically its default setting. Forget deliberation and civil discourse, it goes immediately to outrage and cynical condescension, or in other cases, relentless and unprovoked shaming. And we, as the consumers and residents of this culture, have come to confuse all this noise and reaction with action. Psychologists call this the narcotizing dysfunction—when the amount of effort and energy poured into something becomes self-soothing, obliterating any notions of…

Read More Read More