False Internet News Is The Modern Air Dropped Leaflet
Propaganda has been used effectively by governments and businesses for at least a hundred years. The advancement of technologically with the invention of the radio, television, and now web services have each made it that much more easier to reach a larger group of people much faster.
The debate about the origin of public relations not withstanding it is clear that government and corporate involvement in these practices go as far back as World War I, possibly earlier, in the United States. A need to generate public opinion in a direction that is in favor of military or political action on behalf of American business interests has pretty much always been the motivating force. Whether on behalf of Standard Oil, United Fruit, International Railways of Central America, Defense Contractors, and other transnational corporations, the use of military force has been preceded by campaigns of propaganda to sway both American and international opinion.
Before technology evolved into what it has become today, the most common vehicles for the spread of misinformation were the newspaper and magazines in the U.S., and air dropped leaflets in countries where the media wasn't as sophisticated as in the U.S. These worked like charms for the State Department and the CIA. Today, just about anyone can start a campaign of misinformation. The challenge becomes, as Nate Silver would say, is separating the signal from the noise. There is only one way to accomplish this, to become as well informed about everything as much as one can by reading. Read everything. Don't just read what validates an already held opinion or perspective, but ingest as much knowledge as possible. Only then can you take a step back and critically compare and see what seems legitimate and what seems nonsensical.
I periodically can not help but laugh, then cringe at comments on articles posted on the net, whether real or fabricated. Guy Kawasaki once wrote, "Words are the facial expression of your mind." It is obvious to me that too many people are frowning when they write their comments. The polarization of the mind is easy to achieve on the under developed ones, unfortunately these represent the majority. The best one can do is appeal to the sense of emotional reason, if it exists, and hope to put on display what one can not easily see for themselves, or as someone once told me, "Hold a mirror up to their face", maybe then it will easier for most to distinguish the signal from the noise.
Reference:
The Signal and The Noise by Nate Silver
#elliotyi
#paradigmleft
#habits
#mindset
The debate about the origin of public relations not withstanding it is clear that government and corporate involvement in these practices go as far back as World War I, possibly earlier, in the United States. A need to generate public opinion in a direction that is in favor of military or political action on behalf of American business interests has pretty much always been the motivating force. Whether on behalf of Standard Oil, United Fruit, International Railways of Central America, Defense Contractors, and other transnational corporations, the use of military force has been preceded by campaigns of propaganda to sway both American and international opinion.
Before technology evolved into what it has become today, the most common vehicles for the spread of misinformation were the newspaper and magazines in the U.S., and air dropped leaflets in countries where the media wasn't as sophisticated as in the U.S. These worked like charms for the State Department and the CIA. Today, just about anyone can start a campaign of misinformation. The challenge becomes, as Nate Silver would say, is separating the signal from the noise. There is only one way to accomplish this, to become as well informed about everything as much as one can by reading. Read everything. Don't just read what validates an already held opinion or perspective, but ingest as much knowledge as possible. Only then can you take a step back and critically compare and see what seems legitimate and what seems nonsensical.
I periodically can not help but laugh, then cringe at comments on articles posted on the net, whether real or fabricated. Guy Kawasaki once wrote, "Words are the facial expression of your mind." It is obvious to me that too many people are frowning when they write their comments. The polarization of the mind is easy to achieve on the under developed ones, unfortunately these represent the majority. The best one can do is appeal to the sense of emotional reason, if it exists, and hope to put on display what one can not easily see for themselves, or as someone once told me, "Hold a mirror up to their face", maybe then it will easier for most to distinguish the signal from the noise.
Reference:
The Signal and The Noise by Nate Silver
#elliotyi
#paradigmleft
#habits
#mindset
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