Im-Propaganda: How Effective Are Misinformation Campaigns to Manipulate Public Opinion?

[HuckleB]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=misinformation-government-campaign-iranian-physicist-assassination

"The assassination of Iranian physicist Masoud Ali-Mohammadi on Tuesday prompted a number of questionable accusations from the Iranian government and media about who was behind the killing, claims that have been countered by sources who knew the victim.

Iran's state-controlled media blamed the U.S. and Israel. And President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his first public remarks about the incident Thursday, said the murder method was "Zionist," according to Bloomberg News. U.S. officials dismissed these accusations, calling them "absurd." In stark contrast to Iran's media depicting Ali-Mohammadi as a loyalist, anonymous government sources and colleagues said he was an outspoken critic of the regime and suggested Tehran was actually behind the killing. Although a physicist, Ali-Mohammadi was not known to be involved in Iran's nuclear enrichment program.

History is riddled with examples of governments and media spreading information that lacks supporting evidence or is slanted to push an agenda. A recent U.S. example is the Bush administration's rationale for invading Iraq in 2003—that Saddam Hussein's regime was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the nation could be harboring weapons of mass destruction. There was no evidence to support the former assertion and, subsequent to the invasion, weapons were not found.

...

To get a better idea of the effectiveness of misinformation campaigns, ScientificAmerican.com spoke with David Altheide, a sociologist at Arizona State University in Tempe. For several decades, he has been studying the mass media and propaganda. In his books, most recently Terror Post 9/11 and the Media (Peter Lang Publishing, 2009), Altheide explores how politicians and governments use fear and how the idea of terror has become engrained in our society.

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Mr. Altheide offers some very well known, but sometimes forgotten in the moment, information on the topic. It's a fair interview, and always a necessary reminder to us all.

Cheers...

[conscious evolution]

1. Propoganda campaigns are extremely effective

For a good education on why this is so I reccommend that every DUer should watch the BBC documentary Century of the Self.This documentary tells how the advertising/propoganda industry has been using phsychology to increase the effectiveness of propoganda for several decades.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8953172273825999151#

[HuckleB]

2. thanks for the link. I'll check it out later this week.

Cheers!