The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence
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Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence
#2As a adjunct to this great read, you find out more about this field through the historical documentary, "The century of the Self" by Adam Curtis and the BBC. It is the 'red pill' for understanding consumerism.
https://vimeo.com/10245146
Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence
#3As a adjunct to this great read, you find out more about this field through the historical documentary, "The century of the Self" by Adam Curtis and the BBC. It is the 'red pill' for understanding consumerism. https://vimeo.com/10245146
Beat me to it.
Also recommended to read Bernays' works themselves, particularly "Crystallizing Public Opinion" and "Propaganda."
Its like reading an engineer's manual for social control.
Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence
#4This topic is also addressed in the last season of House of Cards.
Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence
#5This read like anti-Google FUD.
The basic argument is search engine rank determines trustworthiness of a source. This influences people's opinions on politics, what they buy, what they think, etc.
This is absolutely true, and the core of their research (it seems).
But then it goes into FUD territory when talking about Google backing Hillary. Hillary and Trump have received the lion's share of attention in media, social media, and such. Google searches SHOULD show them prominently.
Worse, the article basically finishes up with a "be afraid, be very afraid" approach that rankles me. "The new hidden persuaders are bigger, bolder and badder than anything Vance Packard ever envisioned. If we choose to ignore this, we do so at our peril."
No solutions or deeper analysis. No discussions on how a search engine should rank relevancy to search terms.
I personally have no doubt that mass-media, marketing, and the internet are shapers of opinions. Bias in the media, search engines, and such is a complex topic. Not something that should boil down to "Google could make it so Hillary wins" therefore you should be afraid.
Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence
#6As a adjunct to this great read, you find out more about this field through the historical documentary, "The century of the Self" by Adam Curtis and the BBC. It is the 'red pill' for understanding consumerism. https://vimeo.com/10245146
Beat me to it. Also recommended to read Bernays' works themselves, particularly "Crystallizing Public Opinion" and "Propaganda." Its like reading an engineer's manual for social control.
Yeah, Bernays is great. He called it 'propeganda' to begin with - but realized that it needed a better name. So he called it 'public relations'. The best thing about PR is that people who practice PR have PR practiced on them - they don't even know the history of PR. Curtis' documentary is the best source I have come across for the history of PR.
But this article is quite something. It helps explain the Trump effect - just get on the news/social-media and you will get more votes. Those who can manipulate the media, there's is the kingdom of power...
Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence
#7This read like anti-Google FUD. The basic argument is search engine rank determines trustworthiness of a source. This influences people's opinions on politics, what they buy, what they think, etc. This is absolutely true, and the core of their research (it seems). But then it goes into FUD territory when talking about Google backing Hillary. Hillary and Trump have received the lion's share of attention in media, soci…
The article provides both scientifically acquired evidence and some analysis. That's more than your comment provides, IMO.
Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence
#8This read like anti-Google FUD. The basic argument is search engine rank determines trustworthiness of a source. This influences people's opinions on politics, what they buy, what they think, etc. This is absolutely true, and the core of their research (it seems). But then it goes into FUD territory when talking about Google backing Hillary. Hillary and Trump have received the lion's share of attention in media, soci…
daily reminder that during Benghazi the State Department censored info on google and youtube.
http://freebeacon.com/politics/emails-show-hillarys-state-de...
Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence
#9I have made this case before, but I will make it again.
The Internet is the largest information system in the world, and Google is the primary portal into that information system. Google's "organic" results are accompanied by AdWords results, which are based on a mixture of bid price and relevance. These ads are marked with a small "Ad" label that many people miss, and even those who know they're ads can't really "unsee" those results.
So, searching the world's largest information system provides results which have been biased by money. How does anyone consider this ethical? Why are we letting money influence the salience of information?
What if your local library (you know, those old things) had a card catalog with "sponsored" results? If this already exists, then maybe we're already lost. But it seems to me that as a basic rule of information ethics, the salience of information in a given information system should not be biased by monetary influence. Full stop, the end, no exceptions. If anyone has a counterargument, I would honestly love to hear it, because this has nagged at me for a long time. I simply can't understand how AdWords is ethical.
Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence
#10As a adjunct to this great read, you find out more about this field through the historical documentary, "The century of the Self" by Adam Curtis and the BBC. It is the 'red pill' for understanding consumerism. https://vimeo.com/10245146
Beat me to it. Also recommended to read Bernays' works themselves, particularly "Crystallizing Public Opinion" and "Propaganda." Its like reading an engineer's manual for social control.
Speaking of that trend, it is worth noting the British use of propaganda during WWI, particularly the Bryce Report and the Rape of Belgium. Much of modern propaganda owes to that watershed period. Bernays mentions it in Public Relations. Goebbels himself acknowledged it. [1]
[1] http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/goeb27....