How the media influences public opinion and what to do to avoid falling for tricks

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

There will be no advice from the series “do not read the news, retire from social networks and go underground”.

What tricks are used by the media

Deliberately evoke the necessary associations with the hero of the plot

Information in such cases can be presented in a variety of ways. Here are the main ones.

Veiled submission. One of the options is to use clever layout techniques. Psychotherapist Samuel Lopez de Victoria gives an example from a newspaper whose editors had their own point of view about the actions of one politician.

In one of the issues, next to his portrait, they posted a photo of a clown, illustrating another article. But the associations worked like this: it seemed that the photograph of this character belongs precisely to political material.

Drawing parallels. For example, between the hero of the plot and some unpleasant person with a dark history, which has proven itself to be dubious actions. Up to outright slander in order to evoke the necessary - in this case, negative - associations.

Selection of the necessary illustrations. Articles often include not photographs of the hero, but his caricatured, as if comic, images. Only usually, these funny drawings contain an unambiguous subtext: they put a person in a bad light or focus on their inherent negative traits or actions.

Sometimes for an unwanted character, they choose the worst photo possible in order to reinforce the negative perception of the audience and consolidate the association.

Talk about one problem, but ignore another

Sergei Zelinsky, psychologist, writer and publicist, writes that the media may deliberately "not notice" one problem, but willingly pay increased attention to another. Because of this, really important news is lost against the background of secondary news, but flashing before us more often.

Political psychologists Donald Kinder and Shantho Iyengar conducted an experiment. The researchers divided the subjects into three groups, each of which was shown edited news stories with a focus on three different issues.

After a week, participants from each group felt that the very problem that received wider media coverage should be addressed first. Moreover, each group had its own theme, which was different from the others.

It turns out that our perception of the problem is changing not only because of its real scale, but also because of the frequency of mention in the media.

Moreover, the subjects also rated the president's performance based on how he resolves the issue, which they considered a priority after watching the edited news.

Present negative news as mundane

Information that can cause unwanted emotions in the reader or listener is presented as unremarkable. As a result, over time, a person ceases to perceive bad news critically and begins to treat it as something completely normal, because every day he hears and sees journalists talking about it with a calm face. That is, he gradually gets used to negative information.

Use contrasts

The news, which should cause a positive response, is presented against the background of negative stories, and vice versa. This makes it much more visible and advantageous. For example, a report of a decrease in crime in their region will be perceived more positively after a spate of news of robbery, robbery or financial fraud in a distant country.

Operate with "majority opinion"

It's easier for us to do something if we get the approval of others. When “78% of the population are dissatisfied with the situation in the region” or “more than half of the townspeople are sure that life has become better,” a person only has to choose which majority to join.

The technique is also often used in advertising when they say, for example, that "80% of housewives choose our brand of flour." As a result, the woman who watches the commercial has a subconscious desire to be in the majority. And next time, perhaps, she will buy “that very brand” after all. What if she likes it too?

Shift accents

Messages about the same event can be presented in different ways. Even changing the wording of the title often shifts the focus of the plot. Although he remains truthful, due to the specific presentation, our perception is distorted: we focus on exactly what the media has brought to the fore.

Sociologists often accompany this technique with a telling example - an anecdote about the race of the USSR secretary general and the American president, in which the second won.

The American media wrote: "Our president came in first and won the race." The Soviet media also published the news: "The General Secretary came second, and the US President - the penultimate." And it seems to be true both there and there, but it is still perceived differently.

Serve the message by the "sandwich" method

Social psychologist and publicist Viktor Sorochenko describes two techniques: "poisonous sandwich" and "sugar sandwich". The first is used to hide positive information between two negative messages. The second is for the negative context to be lost between the optimistic beginning and the end.

Refers to research that was not there

The plot mentions: "our source told …", "a group of scientists found out that …" or "a large-scale study proved …", but do not give any links. Such a phrase is most likely used only to give more meaning to what was said and has no real basis.

Create intrigue where there is none

Sometimes journalists resort to clickbait: they add excessive sensationalism to the headline and put catchy words into it that do not convey the essence of the article, but force us to open it. And - as a result - get completely disappointed with the content.

Often the words "shocking", "sensation", "you won't believe that …" and so on are used for clickbait. But sometimes they just ignore important details, misleading the reader.

For example, you came across the following headline: "A resident of the city N came to the exhibition and destroyed the famous painting by Aivazovsky." You follow the link and from the first paragraph you learn that a person bought a reproduction in a souvenir shop, and then cut it into shreds. Why he did this is unclear, but what happened has nothing to do with the original picture, which is not at all obvious from the title.

Highlight the required information on the graphs

For example, to make the difference between the performance of several competing companies seem more impressive, we may be shown only a part of the scale of a bar chart - from 90% to 100%. The difference of 4% in this segment seems to be significant, but if you look at the full scale (from 0% to 100%), all companies will be almost on the same level.

Similar techniques are used when constructing graphs, indicating different lengths of time between critical points, thus choosing the most peak moments. Then the line going up or down will be more revealing.

By the way, it is also more profitable to indicate numbers in percentages. For example, the phrase “the company's profit grew by 10% over the last month” sounds pretty good, but “the company earned 15,000 rubles more this month” is not so impressive. Although both are true.

How not to fall for these tricks

Develop critical thinking. It is necessary to process large amounts of information, to analyze evidence, arguments and opinions of other people, to reason logically. It also makes you question the facts and get to the point.

Here are the steps to help you learn to distinguish between true and false information and recognize manipulation:

• Read books on critical thinking or other helpful materials on the topic.
• Learn and memorize the tricks and techniques that are most often used by the media and marketers.
• Develop media literacy. It is a necessary skill for a person living in the digital age. It is media literacy that determines the possibility of critical thinking: a person is able to distinguish between reliable sources, analyze content and understand media culture.
• Communicate on social media - or in another way that suits you - with people who can give an objective, unbiased assessment of the issue of interest to you.
• Question your own judgments, try to look at things from a different angle, and look for the root of the problem.
• Learn to read and understand statistics. When they say that “75% of people want to live better,” this does not always mean that they are living badly now. And many survey participants comment on their answer further as follows: "I am satisfied with life, but there is no limit to perfection." In addition, the sample may be negligible, and the questions during data collection were most likely asked in such a way that the person subconsciously chose the desired answer - he simply did not have worthy alternatives.