“Crafting your scientist brand” – the rise of the celebrity expert
Scientists work with PR offices to establish a personal brand as a celebrity expert.
Social: How not to respond on social media
Eventbrite founder and chairman makes a fool of himself on social media.
Russian TikTok Influencers Paid to Spread Kremlin Propaganda
VICE News confirmed that someone unknown (possibly Russia’s government?) has been paying TikTok social media influencers to spread untrue lies as propaganda messaging on TikTok.
Ouch: Science communicators assume you are stupid
Science communications is performed precisely as a propaganda function: “The first is what science communicators call “the deficit model,” which assumes the public is deficient in their understanding of science and need scientists as the learned elites to help the benighted masses.” and “The second limitation is that the goal of health communication is not to inform others, but to change their behavior.”
Another neat propaganda technique
A “report” by an advocacy group opposes “vaccine nationalism” and says we need “a massive course correction” on vaccine distribution by redirecting “excess rich-country doses” to “poorer countries”. But they pulled a little trick in their description – twisting the facts.
Journalism: The first “message” received is the one remembered, even if later proven as false.
Reports of a polar bear spray painted with “T-34” on its side were greatly exaggerated. The tagging was done by scientists, not pranksters. The bear had been rummaging a garbage dump and scientists wanted to see if it was returning. They tagged it with a short duration ink; this was not graffiti by pranksters as initially reported. Typical of this type of report, the original source for the video was unknown, the back story was unknown, and the video was shared on social media by an environmental activist. Media then used social media as a primary source. What could possibly go wrong?
“Political motives” have become “the major driving force behind most science communication”
Study finds that “science communications” has routinely devolved into propaganda messaging intended to persuade targets to adopt someone’s agenda.
Broward public schools seeks to hire a propaganda specialist to “fix” the public, rather than fix the problem
When everything is wrong, hire a propaganda specialist to persuade others that things are great because … propaganda! The South Florida Sun Sentinel has reported on how Stoneman Douglas under-reported crime on campus, how the school failed to provide adequate special education services to killer Nikolas Cruz; and how a culture of leniency has allowed unruly students to receive countless second chances. The school district also struggled to defend its controversial PROMISE program, which offers alternatives to arrests for some…
U.S. firms use social media age-based ad targeting to discriminate against older workers
Major U.S. employers use social media’s ability to display job ads only to those in certain age groups, such as between age 25 to 36, or below age 38 or below age 50. They are using this feature to advertise job openings only to younger workers, thereby removing older workers from their candidate pool. Examples: Verizon targeted showed ads only to those age 25 to 36 years old UPS targeted age 19 to 35 State Farm targeted age 19 to…
Climate communications: Polar bears, social media, and how our emotional response may have helped a PR stunt
(This item – featuring a polar bear – emotionally hooked many people – and for some, any discussion is controversial. However, this post is not about polar bears or climate change but about successful propaganda messaging.) Here is the original dying polar bear photo and post from photographer Paul Nicklen. Read carefully. He – and his associate – never say this polar bear is dying due to climate change but he does link climate change to polar bear habitat and…