I heard a friend of mine say something the other day that got my gears turning. She was talking about history, and how even though she is an Asian studies major, when she studies any well-known event she has to do a double take on her mental images ... the symbolism she uses to envision or think about the event. The reason is that she has seen and been exposed to so many movies that she has to be very conscious of the images and feelings that come to mind, the errors in her movie generated version of reality versus what history really shows.
The telling of stories, the acting out of events, the writing of history and painting pictures or carving statues has always been the natural tools of the evolution of our cultures since huddling around the fire to scare the animals away day. Now we have computers and movies, and music, and audiobooks, and radio ... no one spends much time talking around the campfire anymore, or looking at murals in caves, or in the ways we used to "program" ourselves to share realities.
The reality still has to come from somewhere. When I was a kid it was black and white TV ... a big wooden box in our living room that I spent my childhood in front of ... at least most of the part of it where I was supposed to be doing homework.
We gravitate towards the latest thing, the most intense, the newest, the most emotionally resonant experience, the one that makes us feel we are in touch with the part of the world we think is important.
I picture a kind of "bleeding edge" watering hole ... campfire. In any culture there is always one where people can come together. Radio, Movies, TV, Internet ... so that bleeding edge is the place where social engineers would natural go ... like the Hydrogen radio band for SETI searching the heavens for the answer to what is going on here.
When I started watching the bleeding edge of the media there were good guys and bad guys. Very simplified ... white hats, black hats. Somewhere along the way I started to see this change. It started being interesting to see the bad guys win. It started being common to upset expectations. It started to be the norm to make authority look stupid. It was more than that, it started to be common to make the watcher feel good, instead of having an orderly world with the orderly laws of good and evil and morality being followed the trick was to find out who would be watching and make them feel good, validate them.
We all seem to expect this now. Republicans want to know where this sense of entitlement comes from in people ... especially when those people could decide they want to tax and spend their money - this might be one place to start looking. If you follow this bleeding edge of cinema through the years you see some common threads but my question is, does the bleeding edge follow something in the culture or does the culture follow the bleeding edge.
I am reminded of the PR industry, the advertising industry, that makes their money by "helping" us find ways to express who we are ... by showing us people we want to be like with things that we can get they sell these things and ideas to us so we can play on those associations also built in other people's minds that though we ourselves are not famous, we are part of something bigger because we have this symbol of the thing.
One of the first examples of this was to break down the social barriers to women smoking so the cigarette industry could double its profits. The strategy used was to say that women could be more like men ... they could be free, and break their chains by rebelling and smoking, just like the men. Cigarettes were called "Torches Of Freedom" and women were cool and powerful if they flaunted convention and lit up cigarettes. This dubious pattern has followed ever since.
Today we have more and different kind of advertising, most of it working to be very long term and as unconscious as possible and the industry is multi-billion dollars - it where we put a sizeable amount of our effort to socialize people and affect their behavior. In fact I would bet that we override and spend way more on advertising to encourage bad behaviour than we spend on all the messages we send out in education, health care, financial planning and the other positive things. Abraham Lincoln said a house divided against itself cannot stand. Is Media Manipulation real? Is it dividing our house and will our house stand or fall?
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Comments: 30
What is even funnier is the table objects. A lot of times there are tall salt & pepper shakers, second picture the salt is upright between the smokers, the pepper is laying flat in front of the non smoking girl.
I am not making this up; flip thru mags that carry cig ads.
The same is done with liquor ads.
The world would be a much better place if everybody just killed their televisions.
In truth, all artistic expression can be labeled manipulative media. There is not one piece of art that wasn't created to try and convey emotion, ideals or thoughts to others.
The biggest positive aspect of media was / is its use as an educational, instructional and historical recording tool. It's no surprise that corporate businesses or political powers would try to use this medium to further their personal or professional desires, aims and goals. Propoganda anyone?
And would that count as artistic expression ... or is media manipulation a category of artistic expression, or is media manipulation just a techique and not really expression at all except for those who want to hide it inside freedom of speech?
Do you think you have ever been manipulated into buying something that you did not need? If so, how did that work, and was is unconscious, or partially conscious, or are you responsible to override it. Can we always override it?
On the other: 'artistic expression' is a key element of film and television shows, as writers and directors are trying to "say" something. Although some artists may find ways to use artistic expression in creating commercials, the fact that the main purpose of the piece is to sell a product or an idea means that the definition of 'artistic application' is more accurate than expression.
As I re-read your article I noticed that the progression of broadcasting content that you described wasn't all changed solely to gain more profits. Some of the changes in movie and television content over the years is attributable to a call from the public for more realistic portrayals of life, and less Pollyanna-izing. People were growing up with all manner of naive, trusting and innapropriate values; and heavy prices were being paid.
To address one of your other questions in the article; culture and your bleeding edges are intertwined; they lead and follow each other, often round and round and round; ad nauseum.
Good article. Thanks.
What's the origin of this word? Am I correct in assuming it's a term to describe popular, widely adopted behaviours or attitudes that are un-helpful if not downright harmful - and that are propagated by the media? (Like the idea that un-wed motherhood as practiced by Hollywood is OK for everyone, even the 15 year old drop-out with no means of support.)
When people do stuff that flies in the face of self survival and the common good because they saw it acted out in a show and it amused or impressed them, is that because they're under some subtle form of hypnosis as proposed by some of the musing I've just read here?
Or is it just succumbing to the constant bombardment of jack-assery from the media?
Have "memes" been around all throughout human history or are they a modern media driven thing?
>> a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner
>> analogous to the biological transmission of genes.
My limited understanding of human behavior says that our behavior is an amalgum of things that we see and ascribe some value to and therefore seek to replicate - note the replication aspect, as in genes, those behaviors that have some value continue and those that do not fade away.
I'd say memes start with the things you see when you are an infant. Some of them may even be genetic, or genetically predisposed. One book I read likened human beings to imitation machines .... a kind of monkey see, monkey do.
I think the point of women seeing other young unmarried women having children and combining that with the powerful archetypes of protection and care from the community traditional given to mothers can be a powerful motivator or women who might be feeling insecure, lonely of uncertain of what to do in the world?
Lots of things that people think in a knee-jerk fashion may be like this, they make us feel good and like we are part of the "in" crowd, cool or something special.
But I wonder how much stuff that people do has any thought involved at all? I seems that we see definitive things portrayed in the media and the ones that emotionally resonate with us are the ones we "side" with, and it polarizes people, like gang colors.
So many people react to other people based on these kinds of emotional flags, probably without that much though by those who wave them as not much though by those who see them and interprets them.
It is as though everyone is entranced with figuring out things that people do and then ways to defeat them, as if people are machines, instead of ways to reach out and work with other people.
An example from a day or two ago is that I was driving down the street to a 4 way stop sign. I saw a Toyoya Prius also approaching from my left, I was slightly ahead of him. Instead of stopping the Prius slowed a bit and ran the stop sign. Logically this did not really affect me ... I had to stop anyway due to the law, but the Prius driver just ignored the law and sped through the intersection.
The Prius driver figured out the rules of the road, the other guy is going to stop, so if there is no cop there I can run the intersection. They will take the chance.
Why is the question? It does not save the Prius driver any time. The meme he is following I think is the "jerk" meme that seems to say anytime you can dismiss someone or disrespect them without running afoul of the rules you have gained something - you win? What?
I don't know. I do not play that game. I dutifully stop at every stop light my whole life unless I somehow make a mistake. I have never just run a stoplight, and certainly not run one to get a microsecond in front of another driver.
The memes going around and being promulgated by ??? whatever are negative and dangerous, they show contempt and disrespect for the very idea of culture and civilization. Something like making something think it is OK to make a disturbance in a public performance, or pick a fight about defending yourself when you are wrong. Something about how no one can admit when they are wrong, because ... what? If you are wrong just once you are subject to disgrace and dishonor and bullying the rest of your life?
At the bottom of the screen, just above the crawl, they kept alternating these two messages: "France saves American economy," and "Doom for the Dems."
Of course, they neglected to actually elaborate on just how the election of a "capitalist conservative" in France spelled "doom" for the "Dems" here in America.
Incidentally, that was the third time in two weeks now that I've seen the caption "Doom for the Democrats" (or "Are the Democrats doomed?," or some variation of the same sentiment) on a Fox News program. The other two were on Bill O'Reilly's "talking points memo" and of course "Hannity's America."
I am stuck in the middle, which is perhaps why I think I can see so well the manipulations from both sides and the utter disconnect in how we try to discuss issues in this country.
Media Manipulation and the History Channel's Recent Hippy Show
Yes... all that is conceived by the mind can be a verity and possibility...
As long as we have our senses, life, and Will... MANIPULATION is a palpable stipulation...
One thing I have noticed lately about Media Manipulation is all about the Illegal Immigration debate. The media seems to alway play up the need for illegal immigrant, and how mean it is to uproot them or disturb their lives in any way. Almost all the information on Illegal Immigration is slanted towards allowing them to come and remain here.
First it is how would we check who is illegal or not ... do you want to carry an ID card?
Then it is there are 13 million of them, how would we try and deport all of them?
Then it is who would pick your lettuce?
Then it is do you want to split of families?
So if this is a media manipulation issue, then who is behind pulling the string. Not just a large group .... who specifically tells news commentators to say these things because once one of them says it all the rest pick up on them.
When we say 'media', we include (realized or not) newspapers, magazines, books, television, radio, movies, major entertainment outlets including most music production and distribution ... from the very top down there comes an editorial policy that requires compliance with the major goal of making the people (consumers) believe that it is NOT controlled so that they will never suspect that they in turn ARE controlled. Much is presented that would conflict with the idea of control ... but when the really major issues of the most importance to the 'owners' are at stake, there will most assuredly be an editorial bias to make people think in directions favourable to those owners.
Because the entire industry has been so co-opted, people in general have no inkling as to the real truth of the matter and most would not know where to look for it IF they ever did suspect there was more to a story. This media has brainwashed us all into believing what we believe ... and that includes that any conflicting stories are just those of loony 'fringe' elements that have some kind of axe to grind ... that if YOU believe them you are unAmerican ... that THEY do not have the best interest at heart of the nation and you ...
The entire story of the nation, it's history and it's future IS dictated by this control ... we are the ones duped to the intentions of our handlers ... There really IS ample information available to prove this ... in books, on alternate TV such as FSTV, LINK, and the Documentary Channel sometimes. There are countless books from the smaller publishers also ... but the Internet is by far the very best source of links and the information needed to find the truth. (and that is why there is a constant battle ongoing between those that would keep the Internet free and open ... and those 'others' that very much want to also bring it under their own umbrella of influence ...
What is so often ignored is the little known experience of Spiritual INsight that will INtuitively give us the truth we each need on a personal level ... God does speak to us all ... most ignore that subjective 'voice' in favour of OUTside 'authority' ... the one is free and true, the other has a hidden price and is very counterfeit ... as are the owners of the 'other' ... at least 'counter' to what most of 'us' would prefer ... but doing just what 'they' want ... 'their hidden (from us) truth ... nefarious as it is.
Yet, funny enough, the media is so much a part of our experience as humans I find myself often referring to some portion of it to illustrate a point. The Matrix for instance is a fine artistic demonstration of how 'asleep' we are to reality. Living our assigned lives, I just wrote an article about this. I'll post it here the next couple of days, I'd love your views on it.