It's all Rick Dolphin's fault, and I'm mad! He has been asking me for a while to buy the book, "Trust Me I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator." I finally downloaded it to my iPad, so now he can get off my back! Also, I just realized that after reading a little of this book, he is subtly trying to tell me I am a gullible sucker. I like to think that I am a very self-aware guy, not easily fooled, a person with a good head on his shoulders. And then I started reading that stupid book, and I found out just how wrong I was. It is a blue-print on how the media world fools do-gooder people like me; boy does it have me pegged. I am a sitting duck for manipulation. At first, the book was a slow read, tediously detailing the way every day news is created. We naively think the headlines are formed from objective truth seekers, journalists with pure motives and a deep desire to make the world a better place. The real truth is, our news and top media headlines are derived from a wide-open sewer pipe collecting any poopy story that will capture people's attention, regardless if it based on fact or not. One provocative tweet by some unnamed source can send an avalanche of sludge across the cyber universe in a matter of minutes...and you and I are the unsuspecting ones on the other end of the newsfeed ready to choke down any mindless crapola thrown at us. And then I read the chapter: "Tactic #3: Give Them What Spreads, Not What's Good" This title says it all, popular news behaves like a nasty virus -- it moves from host to host with no regards to accuracy or honesty. All that matters is if it gets your attention. Hype is enough. As the chapter begins, "If it doesn't spread, it's dead." And what causes information to spread? The answer is obvious, and it will shake you to your bones: "The most powerful predictor of what spreads online is anger!" Anger stirs you up, and then you have to spread it. This book goes on to say, "The angrier an article makes the reader, the better...anger triggers a desire to act...No marketer will ever push something with the stink of reasonableness, complexity or mixed emotions." See, how it works? Anger is designed to hook you in, and let me tell you, it works every time. It is brutish, born in the soil of sheer passion, no intellectual rigor required. Actually, logic and reason weaken the virus and keep it from spreading -- so the dumber the news and more in your face it is, the better! So how do media manipulators arouse animal anger in us? Easy... 1) Push ideas to the extremes in order to pit people against each other. 2) Start every article with a loaded question. 3) Present everything as a crisis. Let me show you how this works. It takes one tiny little question to start a fire storm... "Are most Born-Again Christians Homophobic?" Just by asking this question it implies they are. If you are Born-Again your anger will be aroused because you will feel attacked, and then you will naturally want to defend yourself. If you are not Born-Again you will feel that our world is being threatened by this dangerous and radical group of haters called Born-Again Christians. (Ironically Born-Again believers are some of the nicest and least violent people you will ever meet). Headlines are designed to paint guilt before innocence is proven. Who cares if homophobia is really something to worry about, or if it even exists at all. Seriously, when was the last time you ever lost sleep over overt homophobia? For the most part, the manipulators trolling our media outlets don't even care if homophobia is a real threat as much as just wanting people to rage from reading the headlines of their article. If they get you angry they accomplished their goal. Divide and polarize to move the ratings needle up another notch. The angrier people get, the more money advertisers make; more hits generate interest which brings in the cash. Media moguls are making tremendous amounts of money off of our gullibility. Sad, isn't it? Here are a few more inflammatory headlines... * Is sugar toxic? * Is racism on the rise in your local police department? * Are most white Baptist preachers anti-women? * Are all Indiana legislators against people in the LGBT community? Divide, polarize, presume, assume, smear, point fingers, and then sit back and watch the fireworks. I will admit, their tactics really work on me; I have been known to explode a time or two on different occasions. So what do we do to combat our natural born anger and fury? Ask yourself when looking at any given article, "Who does this writer want me to hate after reading this? What is making me so angry?" Next, pause and take a deep breath. And then sing as my Grandmother use to sing, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me!" And quit being so gullible! Oh yeah, one more thing, Rick Dolphin knows what he is doing when he is typing on-line...so you better watch out!
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