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This excerpt from "Pre-suasion" illustrates how media shapes opinions and if you think about it more broadly - manufactures crises.

Really good reading if you want to learn about human behavior.

“The central tenet of agenda-setting theory is that the media rarely produce change directly, by presenting compelling evidence that sweeps an audience to new positions; they are much more likely to persuade indirectly, by giving selected issues and facts better coverage than other issues and facts. It’s this coverage that leads audience members—by virtue of the greater attention they devote to certain topics—to decide that these are the most important to be taken into consideration when adopting a position.”

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Discussion

Nomad 2y ago

This is interesting to think about. He's basically talking about frame control, right? And that I'm turn relies on the fact that you only have so much mental space to think about a topic within, so you're always going to consider one of a small number of angles.

Herbert Simon's got to have more on this

HoloKat 2y ago

Basically by focusing attention to issues you want people to care about and covering them in greater detail (accurate or inaccurate), the added focus elevates the issue in the viewer’s mind.

In some sense it’s mind control. Once you’ve captured someone’s attention, you can direct it and frame issues in such a way that convince you of a thing that was not important in the first place. Politics is a prime example where you can observe this - pitting people against one another on some mostly irrelevant issue when a larger issue goes unnoticed.

I’d say most media behaves this way, even those that seem reasonable and honest on the surface. Twitter and other social media just amplify this form of manipulation.

Nomad 2y ago

How do you go about breaking out of that, I wonder? The traditional answer is to have a variety of networks and inputs, read widely and have a strong BS filter

HoloKat 2y ago

My approach has been to ignore most media. If it’s truly important it tends to find its way to you and then you can decide if you care or not.

As for information consumption, I just treat everything as a data point. Instead of looking for absolute right and wrong, look at the big picture. Individual data points are useless on their own but collect a large number and you start seeing a pattern. Helps to keep an open mind in the process and not rush to conclusions.

Purple Horse 2y ago

Have you read “Thinking fast and slow”? Looks like you mastered the art correctly. 💜🤙🏻

HoloKat 2y ago

It’s been on my to read list ☺️

ladidai 🇳🇬🗽 2y ago

it’s true. the purpose of media isn’t to inform—it’s to persuade. and that’s dangerous.

Komi_Hartman 2y ago

'Media': propaganda work, rude, systematic, relayed on the other hand by a huge device made of money, hysterics, networks of criminals, at the service of the same cause of domination & control…