Week 8 [15.05 - 21.05.2017] How does mass media manipulate us?

How does mass media manipulate us?

There’s no doubt modern media manipulate us. The mass media accompany us all day long – we believe in what we see on TV, read in newspapers or see on the net. Sometimes it doesn’t even have to be a lie, but there are some tricks which make us feel afraid or feel angry. That preying on emotions perfectly strengthens the power of information and makes us in fact have our eyes covered with blinkers and we see only the only truth created by them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQDbT1gJLSk

For example - fear and hate

You have just got promotion. You got five at school or college and in general you are a very happy man. You wake up well-rested as never before, reaching for a cup of delicious, aromatic coffee and a daily newspaper. You go to the homepage of one of the most popular news sites in Poland and as a breaking news, you get something like:

„We aim for rockets in Europe and Poland’’

tvn24.pl

I deliberately wiped out a teaser for this article, because in most cases it may have no meaning. You value your leisure time, so sometimes you do not even look at the content of the column - one title sentence is enough. A pretty unmistakable picture of it makes your brain think the rest of it. The media are not interested in the fact that you almost dropped into panties and you instinctively began to pack - sales and feedback of the article are a thousand times more important.

Okay, finally you assume that you should calm down for a while and read what Putin* really said and why he wants to destroy Poland. Keeping clean socks in one hand and a survival kit in the second one, you decide to look at the first few sentences of the article.

Demand that all countries neighboring Russia be excluded from NATO, and if they refuse - point out rockets in Europe and install military bases – among others in Cuba and Venezuela - such ideas appear on russian blogs on the Internet. Poland's involvement in the conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi and American-Polish consensus on the deployment of anti-missile system elements in Poland has ignited their heads and feathers.

tvn24.pl

So that’s not true. It turns out that this is not the president of Russia, and some (possibly unpopular) blogger, spread this information. And it was enough for the media to pick up the subject and interpret it in their own way. It's really scary that it could take a few seconds to hate the society of the country and escape to the West.

Of course, the situation is deliberately exaggerated by me, but surely all of us have been fooled by it - to a greater or lesser degree. Besides, I could actually write about some totally hypothetical situation right here and some readers would believe it. All you need is a suitable title, image and leading text. By leveraging the reputation of the site and the message it brings, you can manipulate the recipients of articles in a great way. Because the emotions matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdl4yxyGZXE

Comments

Unknown said…

More and more people see when media manipulate us. In the past nobody thought about it. It's amazing how much old people can believe in what they see on TV. My grandmother told me many times about how bad it is in Poland, that pregnant women go to prison. After short conversiation I understood that grandmother told me about TV series about court cases. It's interesting that I and other people told her that is only TV program but she didn't believe.
In my opinion when TV station shows big lies they should pay big penalty. Some time ago some website put information that Zbigniew Wodecki was dead. People can write everything to get more clicks.

16 May 2017 at 12:57

Krzysztof Skorupka said…

It’s terribly annoying that today’s media provide more fake or misleading informations than facts. That’s one of the reasons I don’t watch TV at all. For me it is a real shame that the media lost the trust of many people, because of not fulfilling their main role anymore - serving for provision of accurate information. It seems that the financial benefit is what is most important here today.
However, in a sense, it’s our own fault that it looks like that. I think it’s because many of us accept that, there are plenty of people who believe everything that the media present to us as the truth. They unquestioningly accept all the informations, without much (or any) thought. Simply watching news on a few different TV channels or reading several of competing newspapers leads to the conclusion that that the informations supplied are incomplete, incorrect or misleading. Even worse, there is yet another group of people that would even defend those unreliable sources, despite the clear evidence of manipulation or deception.

17 May 2017 at 21:59

Unknown said…

I know that mass media are manipulating us and to be honest the only solution I can find is to get knowledge from many sources - information same everythere is objective, but what it sound like - as good or bad - is subjective and depend on media.
It is annoying, that all the media, especially information ones, are not objetive - I want to know what is going on in the world, not what they think of it - I want to have knowledge, so I can make my own opinion about problem or some occurrences.

18 May 2017 at 09:52

Jagoda Bielawska said…

It is surprising that a lot of people know that mass media is manipulating us, but still they believe in everything they watch. In nowadays is really hard to find reliable source of information. Every news you read must be taken with a pinch of salt. Some news are fake, some just presented in a specified way. And there is no source of information which we should believe in in 100%.

19 May 2017 at 11:21

Unknown said…

That's the point - the media should privide us with real information, not with their own opinion.
Secondly, the TV programmes bases on alleged common life of people should contain information that whole show is not actually true, yet it only immitates life. This way maybe the eldery won't take everything on screen so seriously as they now do.

19 May 2017 at 13:30

Unknown said…

Every day, we read newspaper to be informed of what is happening. We rely on the news media for all kinds of information. However, there are thousands of things occur daily around the world. It is impossible to cover all the stories so the news media determine which stories are newsworthy enough to be presented. That act of highlighting certain issues is called setting the agenda for the public agenda. From the news media, people acquire information about public affairs and place the importance of a topic based on how much the news media emphasize it. Newspapers place the importance of a certain issue by making it on the front page with large headlines while TV news make that issue the first story to be presented in the newscast and devote longer time talking about it. The public then will believe those stories are very important and should be thought of and discussed with other people.

20 May 2017 at 21:50

Unknown said…

We live in a time when there is a tremendous production of data and information on a day to day basis. People are connected on a scale and in a way like never before. Of course more information, more sources of it, will produce more errors and misinformation, it may be difficult to confirm some incidents/events so mass media go with what they have, forgetting about old school mission of being trustworthy and reliable source of news and information.
As always, it is a must to be equipped with our own skill of critical thinking while reading, watching, listening to what someone have to share.

20 May 2017 at 23:32

Unknown said…

Much depends on us when it comes to news from the world we have to constantly verify this and we can't use only one source. As we all know, a lot of media is controlled by the government and they often provide convenient information for the ruling party. It's important not to believe everything they say on television. In my opinion the internet is a good tool for getting information if we know where to look and when we don't treat the first page with newsas the proper one. As for stereotypes promoted in the media, it's also important not to accept this opening, for example some beauty trends, they are often used only to sell a product, but we can't be manipulative and we have to always verify what the media is telling us. It's heaviest is for young people who haven't yet their opinion on many topics.

21 May 2017 at 12:13

Agnieszka Gronwald said…

I think media manipulate us a lot. It depends who is on the other side, when we are watching the news, we should watch many different news from different sources to have more or less clear view and create our own point of view. Many TV shows have much of government influence. Also in the Internet, all the adverts or pages that we are used to read can form our perspective to many topics. It is worth to have your own opinion on many topics.

21 May 2017 at 12:55

Shashkov Oleksii said…

Yes, the media manipulates people is true , because in our time, the main goal is to win the information war than a physical, I even think there is even a scientific work that describes how to do it. I think to avoid to be manipulated, we must trust the facts than the TV show or the news , but strangely the government 20 years ago gave the Internet more less active part in the manipulation because it is possible to find these facts , but he became more popular than TV because he was in the field of view of the state.

21 May 2017 at 15:07

Ihor Ahnianikov said…

That's true, but since media agencies are commercial companies it's not a surprise that they follow specific guidelines for covering news which should be just factual data. For example in US they have CNN and Fox News, two agencies opposing each other, searching and describing news from different angles: CNN for democrats and Fox News for republicans. I prefer checking the factual data, for example only news titles from trustworthy sources. Also WikiMedia foundation are going to start a project to fight fake news.

21 May 2017 at 16:26

Unknown said…

Everybody knows that we are manipulated. The most annoying for me is that we cannot do anything with it. Oh sorry... we can read 'independent' sources. Of course, the Internet gives us possibility of using much more sources than some years ago. It allows to see on the subject from different sides, but it takes time. That's why I think we will always be manipulated and cannot do with it anything.

21 May 2017 at 18:03

Anonymous said…

Nowadays there are barely any good source of information. Every new is in some way full of sentences which are supposed to create a specific opinion about it. Sometimes we have no option to create our own opinion about something. It's really embarrassing that people in TV or radio are telling us what our opinion should be.

21 May 2017 at 19:34

Vyvyan said…

Weare being manipulated? No. We ALLOW them to manipulate ourselves. We watch them, we hear them and pay them for their worki in doing so. Which closes the circle nad the cycle starts anew. But manipulation started waaay earlier. Now the biggest manipulator in our lives are media. Second biggest is religion. Earlier when media didn't exist religion was the biggest manipulator. And why was that? Because "God" said so. People don't understand that this "God" is just a creation of their minds. A mean to controll masses and set some rules to the society. That's where media are aiming to be now. Quoting Zofia Nałkowska:

"Ludzie ludziom zgotowali ten los"

21 May 2017 at 21:16

Magdalena Popek said…

Nowadays I think most of the information we find is biased. Try looking up some research concerning nourishment. You can't find consistent information, because all you find depends on who conducted the experiment. The second thing is news about politics. "Right" and "left wing media" are completely opposite things. In 21st century people should carefully check what they are reading not to get false information.

21 May 2017 at 21:16

Krzysztof Maciaszek said…

I hate the fact that the media constantly manipulate us.
It’s annoying that every time when I watch the news I have to wonder if it’s ‘real real’ or ‘kinda real’.
The most terrifying fact is that some people believe it unconditionally and if something was said on the TV it just must be true.

21 May 2017 at 21:24

Wojtek Kania said…

I think manipulation was always good friend of people :) Many great manipulators lived in 20. century in Germany, Russia... Now we have Internet and we can save and publish any symptom of manipulation. Instead of complaining how mass media are manipulating us I recommend learn how to avoid manipulation. For example I really like read Gazeta Wyborcza and after Gazeta Polska. It's quite funny how journalists are describing our reality in two ways. And I always looking for dry facts, for example what is European Council, what duties has president of the European Council, etc. When I have knowledge, and I have two opinions I can come to the conclusion what is the truth.

21 May 2017 at 21:47

Mieczysław Szumilak said…

Every government is manipulating his citizens by the mass media. Nowadays it is easier to avoid it by using the Internet and read information through couple of sources. Even with that we are never 100% sure what we are reading. The problem occurs with elder people, used to watch TV, they are the easiest to manipulate.

21 May 2017 at 22:01

Michał Pycek said…

Obviously nowadays we have countless sources of information, aiming not only to provide us information, but also create and maintain our opinion on something. In my opinion there is no neutral and objective media nowadays. Even the ones that are in a niche - they also tend to involve people whose interests or opinions on certain subjects are similar, so at the end they represent one side of a story. I suggest to read, read, read and read again various sources and think twice before you actually believe them.

21 May 2017 at 22:05

Łukasz Stawiany said…

Yeah mass media are manipulating us, but no one is forcing us to watch, read or listen to them. We are allowing them to this because we are still their audience. I think that media was always manipulating the facts, because we can see that big media outlets are tied to some philosophy is it right or left side, it doesn't matter, because they are doing the same thing, the are trying to show news in way they can make over the situation to align to their philosophy.

21 May 2017 at 22:07

Łukasz Grzybowski said…

Mass media is a powerful tool to manipulate people. Nowadays I feel confused which information is real. We can use Internet to read informations from trusted source, because television stations are in hands of government.

21 May 2017 at 22:10

Unknown said…

Media manipulation is everywhere. Sometimes it's more hidden, sometimes it's obvious. The most epic manipulation I've seen was during the revolution in Ukraine. People took the same materials and interpreted them in the way they wanted. Sometimes those videos were used only on Youtube, but sometimes on TV where they influenced a huge amount of people. In those times I learned definition of the Informational war. It's much easier to manipulate people when they are fed with the information government want them to be fed.

21 May 2017 at 22:16

Unknown said…

Nowadays manipulation is common thing, so you have always to take care what or who you are listening to. Thankfully we have access to internet, which allows you access to many sources of information and many different points of view.

21 May 2017 at 22:19

KamilG said…

I always try to check the information in other sources, because as many of us, I don't believe in many bullshits served us everyday. I agree with first comment that old people still trust on TV or other mass media, I think it's the affect of lack other sources in past. No matter how strange it sounds, we are more conscious about manipulation by mass media thanks to alone media too, on the Internet are many independent sources of knowledge like blogs, small websites etc

21 May 2017 at 22:35

Unknown said…

Media shows his own persprective. Nowadays we have war in Poland between TVP and other media because their are representive other political group and want to show their group in the good look. I think media show only few moments in part of news and we should get some conclusion and get view from 2 side and decide which version is correct for you. In totalitarism countrys like Korea media play important role to convince people to their goverement. Of course most people cant be cheat but if you say lie a lot of time most people will belive it.

21 May 2017 at 22:54

Unknown said…

If you remember last election in USA, there was an idea that Trump won because of targeting system - that, in fact, manipulated people by fake news in a social medias like facebook.

21 May 2017 at 22:58

Andrzej Gulak said…

This comment has been removed by the author.

21 May 2017 at 23:32

Adam Paśniczek said…

Yes, that’s true many of us even don’t realize how mass media is manipulating. The message is low and the text has no value – that’s why I’m not watching tv news and don’t read newspapers. All information from the world I get thru internet. Even if I find some bad journalist I don’t worry so much because finally I can change the source do not paying any “grosz”. In my opinion the internet is answer for this manipulations. People there can easily check the sources, find some more information and so on. In the end no one will believe in the main “ media corporations” unless you like tabloids.

21 May 2017 at 23:50

Unknown said…

I stopped watching the news a really long time ago, they mostly annoy me and if there was anything serious happening I'd probably learn about it sooner on the internet. Personally, I don't care, I heard news stories that started as a random, unverified tweet, just because it sounded both plausible and shocking. It just comes with time, you get desensitizied to all forms of mass media so they feel they need to up their game by coming up with sillier things. Sooner or later it will go very bad for them as they loose all what's left of their credibility.

22 May 2017 at 02:00

Krzysztof Lichota said…

To be honest I don't read or watch a lot of news. Only ones that might be really important. Maybe this is a way to not be manipulated. I am aware of mass media manipulation for a while, but this not a reason why I don't use them. It is because I feel that their main content are scandals, lies and misfortune of other people. It is really important that when you read, hear or watch something you should process it with your mind and get some knowledge from other sources.

23 May 2017 at 01:29

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