Media manipulation

Media manipulation  (Propaganda,  Corporate media/Media logic)
Type	Idea
A series of techniques in which the CCM create an image or argument that favors their particular interests. It can be actual fakery and is a form of propaganda.

Media manipulation is a series of related techniques in which partisans create an image or argument that favors their particular interests. Such tactics may include the use of logical fallacies, manipulation, outright deception (disinformation), rhetorical and propaganda techniques, and often involve the suppression of information or points of view by crowding them out, by inducing other people or groups of people to stop listening to certain arguments (by using ad hominem attacks for example), or by simply diverting attention elsewhere.

Manipulation (psychology)

Manipulation in psychology is a behavior designed to exploit, control, or otherwise influence others to one’s advantage. Manipulation is generally considered a dishonest form of social influence as it is used at the expense of the others.

Manipulation methods

Albrecht Müller, a German economist, is the author of a number of books on political manipulation methods, touching on deep state subjects. In his book Believe little. question everything. Think for yourself (2019) he listed 19 frequently used methods to deceive:

1. Language control. Let the self-evident validity shine through in the language: "As we all know", "as is already known", ...
2. Manipulation using frequently used terms laden with specific meanings. Using the good sound of a word for another purpose. The best example: "Reform".
3. Leave out things when telling narratives. For example, start the narrative about the 2014 Ukraine crisis with the Russian takeover of Crimea, not the coup in Kiev a few weeks earlier.
4. Hide things Leave out evidence of CIA dirty work or financial conflicts of interest.
5. Repetition – A steady drip wears away the stone. Incredibly effective and the most used method.
6. Smear it thick - A bit is going to stick. Compare someone to Hitler. Even if the addressees of these messages dismiss them because of the exaggeration, a bad impression remains.
7. Send out the same message from different angles. If the same message comes from different (political, ideological) corners, it is particularly credible.
8. Everyone in the group has the same opinion. Then it must be right. See the application of this method in almost every talk show. The invitation to the discussants does not always have to be based on the 5:0 or 4:0 method, the method also works with 5:1 or 4:1. Inviting the minority has the advantage of increasing the credibility of the entire affair.
9. The seesaw effect. By negatively labeling an opponent, your own side appears in a better light.
10. Use opinion polls to form opinions.
11. Say B and mean A. The criticism expressed in several variations (Message B) of the Chancellor because of his (alleged) reluctance to deliver arms almost automatically leads to Message A being conveyed: Arms deliveries are good and correct. - To convey this is the goal of the advocates of arms shipments in the first place.
12. Establishing or using NGOs.
13. A hodgepodge of insinuations makes the sum of half-truths into the truth.
14. Experts help - to manipulate. The common method on stock market broadcasts, business news and many other forums.
15. Linking names and thus judgments of individuals. In his book, he cites a dozen articles from German-language media, including public ones, where several politicians are treated as a package. For example, one paper wrote: "Viktor Orban, Matteo Salvini, Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan are 'strongmen' who don't tolerate any arguments and want to clean up their countries". Müller shows how such name bundles, with which individual politicians are mischaracterized, are also readily copied and adopted by other media.
16. Targeted use of emotions.
For example, a politician pretending to be upset to gain the moral upper hand. 17. Using and staging conflicts to create mood and opinion.
18. The dissemination and use of the basic feeling "We are the good guys" (see below).
19. Pars pro toto - a part stands for the whole.
Using individual phenomena to characterize and label everyone as such. "All the demonstrators are right wing extremists." etc.
20: "Relativize extreme measures through even more extreme demands. Demand Zero Covid to make lockdowns seem a moderate solution.

We are the Good Guys

The dissemination and use of the basic feeling "We are the good guys"

Spreading the feeling that we are honorable, free, good, democratic and exemplary here in the West is not as easy to understand as a method of manipulation as, for example, the methods of repetition, exaggeration, concealment or telling abridged stories. And yet spreading the basic feeling that we in the West are the good guys can be understood as a method of manipulation. The method is extremely effective and determines a wide area of ​​contemporary political life.

It is a tremendous feat for the West to have established itself as an all-round good world. I should probably say more precisely: created and strengthened the feeling and the impression that we are the good guys here. It is a basic feeling in Western societies and is mostly not questioned by the people living there, but used instead. Being able to use this self-esteem is also nice and helpful. In all situations. Because with this basic feeling one lives quite well. We here in the West are the beneficiaries of this arrangement, without having done much to build up this basic feeling.

This basic feeling can be used without having to be explained and justified, again and again. Any discussion is excluded; that's how the world is divided.

The seesaw effect

The term seesaw effect probably sounds strange. It doesn't appear in the textbooks. However, I could not think of a more appropriate term for the manipulation method that will be outlined here:

US President Donald Trump is a special figure, he uses nasty methods and lashes out with excessive slogans. But in many political intentions and actions, such as the tendency to wage wars, he is no worse than his predecessors Barack Obama and above all than George W. Bush or Bill Clinton and also no worse than his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. But thanks to the index finger constantly being raised against the current president, the negative image that already exists is being further aggravated. In return, his predecessors and his competitor appear as wonderfully virtuous figures in the last election campaign. The Democrats around Obama and Clinton seem downright glamorous – the result of the see-saw effect. . Another example: In recent years, the established media and their representatives began to eye the growing media on the Internet critically and even condescendingly. This criticism and the resulting negative labeling also works according to the see-saw principle. The established media appear as the real thing; they appear at the same time more and more as a block. The tabloid Bild-Zeitung on the one hand and, for example, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Zeit on the other act as a consensual grouping of true media. That's strange, especially when you remember their big differences and mutual criticism in the past.

There has long been a skeptical debate and critical analysis of what is commonly called democracy among critical fellow citizens in the West. Democracy has almost never existed, I once said, thinking of the massive financial support from business for the CDU Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and his successors, above all Helmut Kohl and somewhat quieter Angela Merkel. The conservative parties CDU, CSU and FDP had the support of the rich part of our society. They always had far more resources to fund their election campaigns. Equal competitive conditions and thus truly democratic conditions never existed.

It's no different in other countries, sometimes worse: in the USA, presidential candidates have to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in order to be able to run. This type of candidate selection cannot be called democratic. In France, a presidential candidate like Emmanuel Macron appears out of nowhere. Apparently selected and controlled.

Big money plays a big role in all such so-called democracies. Actually, one would have to admit that the conditions are not democratic. The see-saw effect helps out of the jam: Compared to the so-called autocrats, compared to Turkish President Erdoğan, for example, the people acting here appear to be democrats and our system appears to be democratic. The seesaw ensures that we are then considered democrats and anyway as the good guys.

 

Examples

Page name	Description
2016 Brussels Bombing/Media manipulation	False Belgian media reporting on the Mass murder in Brussels
COVID-19/Media Manipulation	Media Manipulation during COVID reached unprecedented level, especially in promoting COVID-19 panic and a stampede towards COVID-19 jabs.
Corporate media/Deep state control	On important topics, control of the corporate media by the deep state is the rule, not the exception.
Corporate media/Logic	Corporate media uses psychological tactics to attract more viewers. The tactics have become a standard set of rules how to present articles, to make sure politicians and their special interest groups can influence the public's opinion more easily and quickly. People often neglect the idea that the news on their favourite channel is biased with a reason as it fits their personal opinion.
Mind fucking	Mind fucking, or crazy-making behaviors are techniques designed to disrupt people's normal mode of rational thinking
Outrage porn	Using words that are scientifically proven to make someone angry just to get them engage with the news outlet. "Big government want to hire more tax guys to tax us to death! This is the plan, they are gonna get you, be scared, be angry, vote against them and for our oil people, ooohhhh."
Video manipulation	Video manipulation is a type of manipulation using video processing and video editing techniques.

 

A Media manipulation victim on Wikispooks

Title	Description
Nicki Minaj	American rapper who has dissented over COVID-19, and been slandered by the legacy media.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Social media	“Social media manipulation was pioneered by Israel in 2009, during its Gaza offensive, not by Russia and China. The UK and the US both have had online "psychological operations" for years. Calling out some actors but giving others a free pass does little to address the problem.”	Clare Daly	10 December 2021

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