Politicians interpret social problems and invent national agenda by naming them: Cold War, War on Drugs William Lutz – doublespeak George Orwell – Newspeak Self-fulfilling prophecy Ex: The power of a label in an educational setting (77) Ex. Male and female experiment where expectations created reality (79) “The ability to manipulate words and concepts in our head – that is the ability to think – is a uniquely human characteristic” (79). Joseph Goebbels Chapter 7 “Pictures in Our Heads” Walter Lippman – to what extent do we let our fictions our thoughts and actions? “He contended that the mass media paint an imagined world and that the ‘pictures in our heads’ derived from the media influence what men and women will do and say at any particular moment” (80). Television is grossly misleading as a representation of reality (80) George Gerbner’s studies -statistics -results -the person is never in jail at the end of the show -television promotes consumerism -correlation between television and beliefs (not causal) Political psychologists Iyengar and Kinder – studies on the news Synopsis: “The content of mass media sets the public’s political and social agenda.” Goebbels: “This is the secret of propaganda: Those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it” (87). the media doesn’t tell us what to think, but it tells us what to think about. Chapter 9 “A Questionable Persuasion” Hypothetical: Program A/Program B “People dislike losses and seek to avoid them” (94)
Skip the breast exam example – awkward Question asking can be a form of pre-persuasion (95). Subtle changes in the wording of a question can produce dramatically different responses. -Gerry Spence, attorney, claims that a well-phrased question may contain more persuasive information that the answer to the question. Example-Guccione -Elizabeth Loftus – how leading questions can influence eyewitness testimony. -Example of pain reliever chart (see book) “Question-asking can be a powerful persuasion device because questions structure our decision-making process (99). -Examples of how politician avoid answering questions Chapter 10 “The Power of Decoys” X Chapter 11 “The Psychology of Factoids” Opens with a mysterious “gas attack” in a town in Illinois The gasser was a factoid. They define factoid as an assertion of fact that is not backed up by evidence, usually because that fact is false of because evidence in support of the assertion cannot be obtained. (Rumors, gossip, urban legends, libel, slander, hearsay) Claim: Factoids are common (105). -Examples: War of the Worlds; Paul McCartney; Susan Smith “Today entire newspapers, magazines, and television programs, under the guise of presenting ‘news,’ are devoted to inventing and circulating believable rumors (106). Flaming is the Internet term for vicious attacks and unfounded rumors. Daniel Wegner and his colleagues conducted a series of simple experiments- -newspaper headlines: candidates linked with a directly incriminating headline were perceived more negatively. Source made little difference. Factoids function as a form of pre-persuasion; they create social reality (113). Evidence law- Students in one of courses (118) Method for dealing with potential factoids: begin questioning and confronting the makers of factoids directly.