Information Control For Social Manipulation

[Guest guest]

Introduction/Excerpt

http://www.whale.to/a/deserano.html

 

 

Information Control For Social Manipulation

 

The news and entertainment we consume, and thus our thoughts and

opinions, are shaped not just by the media and entertainment

corporations but by governments, their agencies and the military-

industrial complex.

 

Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 11, Number 2 (February-March

2004)

PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia. editor

Telephone: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381

From our web page at: www.nexusmagazine.com © 2003 by David B.

Deserano, MS

Email: fortytwoent

 

 

Information Control

Who has the information? How is it being distributed? How is it

contextualized?

Part I: Media Intents, Capabilities, Practices, and Origins

Part II: Corporate Media and Content Control

Part III: Individuals—Actions and Connections

Part IV: Journalism and the Threat of the First Amendment

References:

 

 

Information Control

 

It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a

psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is

in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until

they clothe ideas in disguise.

—Joseph Goebbels

 

The United States is the most media-saturated country in the world.

We are bombarded daily with thousands upon thousands of images and

sounds designed to get our attention, entertain, and inform us of

everything from shoes to food to celebritydom to political ideology.

Its been estimated that the average American is exposed to more than

3000 advertisements every day, but on top of that, there are the news

programs, sitcoms, films, radio and other forms of media that we

choose to consume. All of this works to shape our opinions of the

world and a great deal of time, effort, and money is spent to guide

our opinions down particular avenues. This used to be

called " propaganda " .

 

Today, with the negative, Nazi-esque connotation which comes with

that word, euphemisms such as misinformation, disinformation, image

consulting, political consulting, news consulting, advertising,

infomercials, public relations, damage control, and the art of spin

have taken its place in the English lexicon, all but concealing its

true nature and omnipresence. And omnipresent, it is. The industries

that deal with information control – in both the commercial and

governmental sectors—work with hundreds of millions of dollars

annually, for Schoolhouse Rock was right on target when it

said, " Knowledge is Power! " Is it any wonder that our schools are

suffering so badly while corporate CEOs and members of our government

continually allot themselves raises? Uninformed, ignorant masses are

far easier to manipulate then educated, thinking masses.

 

Who has the information? How is it being distributed? How is it

contextualized?

Corporations and the US government have spent many decades and

hundreds of billions of dollars researching how best to effect the

American people. Much of this information is kept secret from the

public (in the case of corporate research, it is their private

property) and what is known has come from the more recent work done

by scholars around the world – work that is dramatically under-funded

by comparison. So, the information available to the average citizen –

including the aforementioned academic scholars – is radically less

than that which is available to the producers of media or information

campaigns (i.e. advertising agencies, public relations firms,

political consultants, etc.). However, an important fact that is

known is that the human brain processes different mediums in

different ways. Written and spoken words are put through a type of

decoding process wherein the brain deciphers the words and the

sentence structure in order to properly interpret what it is

reading/hearing. In this process, both the conscious and unconscious

mind go through an internal debate comparing what its interpreting

with what it already knows to be true. With the image, however, the

brain instantly processes it as truth, which means information

presented in a visual format has a much greater impact on the

unconscious. Over long periods of time, recurring imagery has a built-

up effect on the viewer which allows for unconsciously conceived

notions of truth to manifest as though from nowhere (keep this in

mind as you read #69). Naturally, then, whomever has control over the

mediums of communication has a tremendous amount of power over the

populations who consume it.

 

NOTE: In no way is this intended to convince readers of any

particular conspiracy theory, but rather to present a collection of

facts – all of which are readily available to the average American –

and allow readers to draw their own conclusions.

 

http://www.whale.to/a/deserano.html