Ten Strategies For Manipulation Through Mass Media by Noam Chomsky
Ten Strategies For Manipulation Through Mass Media by Noam ChomskyReproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
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Renowned critic and MIT linguist Noam Chomsky, one of the classic voices of intellectual dissent, has compiled a list of the ten most common and effective strategies resorted to by the “hidden” agendas used to establish a manipulation of the population through the media.
Historically, the media have proven highly efficient in molding public opinion. Thanks to the media, paraphernalia and propaganda have been created or destroyed, social movements promoted, wars justified, financial crises tempered, or some other ideological currents have been spurred on; and even the phenomenon of media as producers of reality within the collective psyche exist.
But how to detect the most common strategies for understanding these psychosocial tools in which, surely, we participate? Fortunately Chomsky has taken on the task of synthesizing and exposing these practices, some obvious and more sophisticated, but apparently all equally effective and, from a certain point of view, demeaning. Encourage stupidity, promote a sense of guilt, promote distraction, or construct artificial problems and then, magically, solve them, are just some of these tactics.
Divert public attention from important issues to unimportant ones and overwhelm the public with a flood of irrelevant information so that people do not use their brains or gain basic knowledge in understanding the world.
This method is also called “problem-reaction-solution.” A problem is created for the public to react to. For example: let it unfold and intensify urban violence, or arrange for bloody attacks in with the intention that the public more readily accepts the restriction of liberty to the detriment of freedom. Or create an economic crisis to gain acceptance as a necessary evil the retreat of social rights and the dismantling of public services.
In order for the public to agree to certain unacceptable social measure, it should be introduced gradually for months and years. Changes that could provoke resistance, if implemented abruptly and within the short term, would be implemented by the policy of small steps. The world is thus changing over time whereby people are not aware of the changes.
Another way to prepare the public for unpopular changes is to announce them much earlier and in advance. People do not feel all the weight of change at once, because they are previously accustomed to the very idea of change. In addition, the “shared hope for a better tomorrow” facilitates their acceptance.
When talking to adults as if they were a little child there are two beneficial effects: the public suppresses its critical awareness and the message has a stronger impact on people. This suggestive mechanism is also widely used in advertising.
Emotional abuse is a typical technique used for causing short circuits when judging reasonably. Critical awareness is replaced by emotional impulses (anger, fear, etc.) The use of the emotional register allows access to the unconscious, so it is possible to carry out ideas, desires, worries, fears or coercion, or cause certain behaviors later at this level.
The lower class of society should be denied access to the mechanisms of understanding the manipulation by their consent. The quality of the education of the lower social classes should be as low or below average as possible, so that the gap between the education of the upper and lower classes becomes insurmountable.
The lower class of society should be denied access to the mechanisms of understanding the manipulation by their consent. The quality of the education of the lower social classes should be as low or below average as possible, so that the gap between the education of the upper and lower classes becomes insurmountable.
It is necessary to convince each individual that they are solely responsible for their own misfortune, due to poor knowledge, limited abilities, or insufficient effort. Such an insecure individual, burdened with a sense of guilt, would eventually give up identifying the true causes of their position and rebellion against the economic system.
The rapid development of science over the last century has created a growing gap between the knowledge of the public and those who own and use the knowledge — the ruling elite. The “system,” thanks to biology, neurobiology and practical psychology, has access to the advanced knowledge about humans both physically and psychologically.
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