Hillary Clinton can’t walk up stairs? Old photo, missing context

Hillary Clinton can’t walk up stairs? Old photo, missing context

TL;DR Summary This photo is spreading today (August 7, 2016) on Twitter and Facebook and purportedly is a contemporary photo of Hillary Clinton requiring assistance to go up a flight of stairs. Reality: The photo is from February 2016 when she slipped on the stairs and was grabbed by aides to prevent a fall. Once posted on social media, this was shared, liked and re-tweeted, with no one asking the obvious questions about time frame, location or verification of the subject. This…

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Bernie Sanders is not a millionaire?

Bernie Sanders is not a millionaire?

TL; DR Summary A shared social media poster asserts that Bernie Sanders would have been the first president who wasn’t  a millionaire, since 1945. On the surface, this statement sounds plausible. His Senate disclosure forms list less than $1 million in assets. But it leaves out the value of his retirement savings and his government provided pension. A private sector worker would need at least $1 million in assets to have a pension payout similar to what Sanders will receive…

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Context matters – “Allah is the only god”

Context matters – “Allah is the only god”

  TL;DR Summary Conservative social media protested that school children were ordered to write “Allah is the only god” for a school assignment. The incident did happen, but context matters! This is just one tiny part of a multi-part course segment on issues in world history. And specifically, on the role that religion has played in major historical events. On 1 day of a 3 week period, students examined the Five Pillars of Islam to learn the role they played…

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Republican Platform seeks to sell off all Western US Federal lands

Republican Platform seeks to sell off all Western US Federal lands

TL; DR Summary The basic propaganda method used here is the strawman argument. In the strawman argument, you create a fictitious statement from your opponent (in this case by exaggerating what they said) and then argue against that fictitious statement, rather than what the opponent actually said or promoted.

“In the age of the Internet, the truth does not matter”

“In the age of the Internet, the truth does not matter”

“In the age of the internet, the truth does not matter. The message you want to propagate can be told, and it will spread like wildfire. And spread it did.” Propaganda spreads faster than wildfire on social media, often torching everything in its path. The marriage of social media and propaganda is extraordinarily dangerous if you think about how Internet mobs convict people, groups, ideas – in a matter of hours – in the absence of a full set of…

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Simple messages are more successful

Simple messages are more successful

TL;DR Summary This Right Wing News poster is one of the few effective posters they distribute (right wing social media propaganda is way behind left wing social media propaganda). Using the methods of Assertion and Linkage, this poster delivers a simple, easy to understand message. The significantly altered photo of Hillary Clinton likely engages an emotional response as well.

The 1956 Republican Platform

The 1956 Republican Platform

A left wing poster claims that the 1956 Republican Party platform supported everything Democrats support today. Except that the claims range from false to the items in the platform referred to something completely different than claimed by the poster.

Social media “influencers” secretly paid by companies

Social media “influencers” secretly paid by companies

Social media stars have been paid – quite well – to secretly promote various brands and products. Source: FTC spanks Warner Brothers for failure to disclose social influencer payments | The Blog Box Social media is THE platform for all forms of propaganda!

How to use charts for misleading propaganda!

How to use charts for misleading propaganda!

This chart appeared on a blog post saying auto sales are “down again” and this should worry us about a recession.  See that blue arrow at the right? Looks horrible!!!! But this chart design is a real mess. First, the blue arrow anchors our view on the blue line and its downturn at the right. But the real chart is the harder to see gray column chart. Column charts are a *terrible* way to show a trend – line charts…

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Propaganda and the Affordable Care Act

Propaganda and the Affordable Care Act

Each of the following widely publicized statements about the Affordable Care Act are not true: HealthCare.gov’s web site problems were just a glitch “70% of consumers are receiving a subsidy” “The Bronze plan covers 60% of expenses” “The average cost of a Silver plan for a 40 year old is…” “People’s policies were canceled because they were junk policies” What they all have in common is the power of propaganda messaging to spin a story, typically for political purposes.