Feeling Manipulated

I am just going to throw this out there and you can decide whether or not you've been feeling the same thing or something similar.
If any other examples can be made please add them at your own discretion, I will be most happy to read them since you obviously took the time to read what I wrote. When I speak of media I am commenting on all forms from news, to facebook, to ATS.


First off, several months ago a jet liner MH370 went missing with 239 people on it. All that was on the news, specifically CNN, were experts, stories and theories as to what happened to this jet for about a month straight. It ended somewhat unfinished in a most undramatic way, since nothing was ever found. Then next came the Ukrainian annexation/hostile takeover by Russia, which I believe if I remember correctly, overlapped a bit with Israel's issue with Hamas once that heated up. Then the next jetliner incident, MH17 being shot down. Finally ebola, ISIS and then recently we end up at Mr.Brown's death by the hand of a police officer. There are many other stories, but that's the news right?
Well as noted in other threads, some media outlets have their own agendas in mind. Whether it is propaganda or commercialism really doesn't make a difference to me, because I am only looking for the story. But what if the story is not about what we are reading, but what we are reacting to.
For instance when MH370 went missing everyone went into terrorist mode in the first few days. I remember the threads of some believing this jet to be used to deliver a nuke to Israel via. Africa. Then came the more or less rational mode of thought, it must have crashed but where? Then more conspiracies to the location it crashed and how. Then speculation of each and every person, item and satellite that came close to this jet. It almost play's like a script. The problem I'm having is to what purpose is all this?
Recently we had the Brown incident, as I will call it for ease, not out of disrespect to him. We start off with a murdered, big teddy bear, black, urban, college bound youth killed by a racist cop. Next we have groups forming to avenge this travesty of justice by doing nefarious deeds, I speak of anonymous and those that partook in the riots. Then we have our pentagon funded, militarized police shooting tear gas at reporters and pointing sniper rifles at civilians. Ultimately protests are springing up all over the USA and then BANG! He's not an innocent murdered, big teddy bear, black, urban, college bound youth killed by a racist cop. Instead he is a suspect to a felony, in which went terribly wrong for many reasons and died by the hand of an over zealous police officer. If that's even the case now.

So why is the news feeling more and more like the stage of a play, that we all end up performing in?


Well lets look at the Brown incident again, what happened this past week due to all this. What changed?
The world knows the USA has a police force, even in the smallest of suburban areas, that would rival some armies. Anonymous may have had some good intentions at first but now is just another radical group of untrustworthy individuals. The police were right in their actions(I'm being very forgiving here) but not in their procedures. Is this the real message? The message that we all helped create given the stage?
I find it very 'fishy' how certain aspects of the MSM have gone down in the past few weeks. And this is in no way a new idea, the play/movie Chicago delves into a court related version of just what I'm talking about.

Razzle Dazzle 'em
Give 'em an act with lots of flash in it
And the reaction will be passionate
Give 'em the old hocus pocus
Bead and feather 'em
How can they see with sequins in their eyes?

What if your hinges all are rusting?
What if, in fact, you're just disgusting?

Razzle dazzle 'em
And they'll never catch wise!

www.stlyrics.com

I constantly feel like the news is trying to push me in one direction or another, even if the report is objective. Just the act of putting the story out there is like some social engineering experiment. And given some of the frequent outcomes by social media fueling the fire, even the smallest of events can be pushed to create the biggest of episodes.
So is this just modern media, psy-ops/social engineering or something more devious? Do you feel manipulated by the media also?

Sorry, my apologies if I didn't get my point off correctly, I am not the best writer. In actuality I do not like to write at all, but since painting a picture takes too much time, I hope you can bear with me. Mod's please move this because depending on your point of view, it could go to several different places.

a reply to: AnteBellum
I got that feeling a while back. I watched several different news channels, because all were tilted, and I thought I could read in between the lines to get the real story behind the innuendo.
It really takes a lot more time than I want to get to the news.

I finally just got a news reading app that reads the news in a robotic fashion, it's not the ultimate solution, but the asides and remarks and snark are funnier when said deadpan. The news app reads from all the sources, so it doesn't have a slant.

All the news networks have an agenda in my opinion, and also, they have to fill the dead space of a 24 hour news cycle with something, so they trot out the commentators and experts.

You forgot that African dude and his gang. Boko Haram with the 300 kidnapped women. I never heard of that again..

Yes you're right that the media is pointing us where they want to. That's their job. But on the other hand I think the world is gradually getting more evil by the day.

It's like the next story is topping the one before etc.

ETA: What ever happened to that Koni guy??

a reply to: AnteBellum

So why is the news feeling more and more like the stage of a play, that we all end up performing in?

Because it *IS*.

In 1917 in a US Congressional meeting, it was recorded that in 1915 J.P. Morgan interests had acquired 25 of the leading newspapers, inserted their own editors and had been using the papers to suppress important information and influence public opinion to favor their policies.

Why Nobody Should Trust the Mainstream News

I haven't seen Chicago, but I almost always feel manipulated because, in general, society and famous and high status people have opinions, and to some extent, I'm supposed to agree or I'm labelled nuts. I get the feeling there're lemmings who gobble up whatever the experts (or society) give them and then there're people like me who have fierce opinions which may or may not be rationale.

I think what's happening is you're catching onto the fact news is not just the facts. It's supposed to be, but it does seem there're some news outlets more conservative and others more liberal. And some news outlets are just propoganda for the nation-state. Pick up any magazine and in essence you're getting news. What kind of news? Factual? Not necessarily. I think in some way news is like how a tool can become an extension of our body, but instead of being an extension of our body it's an extension of our mind. It has many of the same flaws our mind does.

I think if you try to stay on top of everything too mcuh it'll wear you down and probably cause you more stress than you need. News has become like an addiction for some. They turn on the TV out of compulsion.

But I'll add I'm not one of those people who thinks we should throw everything out and start over. I'm not THAT nihilist. Just fiercely opinionated, probably to a fault. I think what society has earned over the past millions years is still worth keeping and even fighting for, but I do not think it knows everything yet. There's room for intuition. Like James T Kirk, not Spock. Sometimes I go with Spock (the fact checker), yet sometimes I don't.

originally posted by: Hellas
ETA: What ever happened to that Koni guy??

That's so 2012.... ... ...

originally posted by: MessageforAll

originally posted by: Hellas
ETA: What ever happened to that Koni guy??

That's so 2012.... ... ...

a reply to: xuenchen

Again, I always have trouble getting my point across. I type fast and leave lots of stuff out, stuff that you can't mind-read from me.
What I should have included was it feels more 'active' lately. Like there is an ultimate goal or point to it all, coming up right around the corner. These traits from our media have been there since the beginning of time but the elevated feeling I'm having lately is either due to my increased feelings of, I don't know paranoia, from recent world events or something else pushing it to new levels.
I'm usually very sensitive about these issues so if others are feeling it to, it will save me a trip to the psychiatrist.

Thanx, AB

a reply to: xuenchen

-Double post-

My computer is crawling all of a sudden, I'll be back in a minute. . . . .

a reply to: AnteBellum

The elevated feelings "lately" are because there are more issues with more impact lately.

That's what i think.

The "News" (and deflecting) is more complicated when issues are complicated.

Bad things happen all the time in a bad world. Does the media twist things to manipulate? Always have, always will. All spectrums of the media. Just like we all have a slight variation of the truth to an incident and want to be right. So we will try to convince the other that our point of view of the matter is the right one. Some will push a lot harder and in a more stupid way than others.

You feel manipulated by the media? join the club. Stop watching it. If you want to know the truth behind which ever incident you have to go fishing in the pool of manipulation and figure out what seems the closest to the truth, for you. Then feel free to try to softly manipulate others into accepting your version.

Are all those incidents somehow maliciously meant to be an social experiment through media to see how you think? What? No. The world doesn't revolve around us. Bad things happen in a bad world, and people will always try to use anything to their advantage... to push an agenda. Doesn't mean they are directly responsible for the act. (Quick leap into history: The National Socialist party of Germany didn't set the fire at the Reichstag in 1933... but they did use that incident to their advantage to manipulate people into bringing them to absolute power)

Humanity is built on manipulation. We represent it. We are it. Everything has a glimmer of manipulation to it. From the history we are thought, religion, the education we get, to the items we buy and the relationships we forge. One must only learn to accept it and know how to wield it. Hopefully not abuse it.

a reply to: AnteBellum

Well.. I can tell you in the Brown case.. they are doing everything they can to change the narrative. The first said he went after the gun, but eyewitnesses blew that away.

Now they are saying he stole from a store (they said robbed - but it looks more like teenage shopplifting). Now how did they ID a guy on a video in a store to a guy that's dead so quickly i have no idea, but they do work magic when they need to make a villian (of anyone but themselves - cops).

There always mis and dis information, but if you just stare through to the middle you usually come out the best.

The cop murdered this guy, he could have stolen a cheap cigar factory and not deserved it. Kind've ashame they are even trying to use that to say he wasn't perfect. No one cared if he was perfect, they cared that he was murdered.

It never even occurred to me that we showed the world the might of America. I was thinking, "I'm so embarrassed". But, you're right we didn't just show the world that even the smallest town has might. We showed where and how and pointed to the legislation.

Years ago I started reading news instead watching it. Not just for what was listed above that all the channels started repeating each other. I also noticed that unless you have time on your hands you never realize the broadcast news is more dramatic then print. Shortly after I noticed that, some news sites moved away from print form.

There are many apps that bring multiple publications in one place. That's my preference now.

a reply to: Odyssian

I agree with all you have to say including:

Are all those incidents somehow maliciously meant to be an social experiment through media to see how you think? What? No. The world doesn't revolve around us. Bad things happen in a bad world, and people will always try to use anything to their advantage... to push an agenda. Doesn't mean they are directly responsible for the act. (Quick leap into history: The National Socialist party of Germany didn't set the fire at the Reichstag in 1933... but they did use that incident to their advantage to manipulate people into bringing them to absolute power)

But the above so mentioned, only to a point.
If the situation presents itself I feel they absolutely take advantage of it. UFO's become popular or mainstream and a thousand and one tv, spokespersons, books, radio shows and websites join up and spread the truths/lies like propaganda, all for personal profit. Even ATS owners were something else at one point and then decided to open this board not only for the need it provided for the people, not only for their own personal interest, but also for profit.
It's no secret that when a trend starts to form one can use it to manipulate, profit from and in the most extreme instances control. I just never looked at the MSM or RT that critically before(even though these issues are always in the back of my mind) and now, with a much wider opened eye, it seems they are not only doing it but using advanced methods to make events more tangible to us all. Now can this be just a normal factor of connectivity? Sure, but when we have computer AI playing the stock markets instead of how stock brokers used to do it, it makes it all seem like just another tool to guide us like lemmings from one topic to the next.

a reply to: Iamthatbish

There are many apps that bring multiple publications in one place. That's my preference now.

That's what I do now on my phone. I selected what I'm interested in seeing and it directs the stories my way. But if the stories are selected by individual news agencies and the agencies are all owned by the same major conglomerate then I might as well just have clicked: Yes, I want to see news or No, I don't want to see news. It all leads back to the same place.

Is the news media trying to sway opinions and bend people's views to what they want?

I'm pretty sure that's obvious. All one has to do is watch political news of each major outlet, and you'll see that they are doing just that.

So yes, I would say you are being "manipulated", or rather they are trying to "manipulate" you in many ways. Not just your views, but to get you to view them even more (ratings).

So what should one do?

I do not have an answer for everyone, but I do know what works for me:

First: I don't watch cable news. Instead, I READ it.

Video and Audio can impact a person much more than words on a screen can. The tone of the person speaking, their body language, and then there are the images of the news item they show too.

Reading the news instead, makes it a bit more abstract. There can still be images, but the assault on my senses is drastically reduced.

Next, I do not read from just ONE source. Instead, I go and find several different sources on the same news item.

I pay attention to phrases like: "We think", "It's be speculated", "Anonymous sources", "A person who asked to not be identified", "Of the opinion", etc, etc, etc.

I ignore those. They are not objective facts in the story (if there are any), and are instead subjective things, or things that can not be verified.

When I do this, I end up with something that just includes the facts (Just the facts ma'am!), or at least the same information that is being reported, and that then allows me to either draw my own conclusions, or I understand that I need to wait and see in more information comes out to help me define my own conclusion.

I started doing this about 10 years ago, and I've found that I become a lot LESS opinionated about many things. I feel a lot more objective about things, and more like an observer.

Instead of a pawn being moved around on a chess board.

a reply to: eriktheawful

I used to do those things also, but again I think it's larger then that.
Napolitano touches on it in a few places during his career ending speech here:

a reply to: AnteBellum
I don't watch world or national news anymore.
I am a happier person than I was then.
I keep up with my community and state events/news. I involve myself in local matters.
I am a happier more fulfilled person because of this.

P.S. I do not feel manipulated

a reply to: AnteBellum

Ah! There is one thing I forgot to mention:

I make sure to LIMIT the amount of time I spend reading the news.

Instead, I concern myself more with my life here at home and with my family, because I've found it's possible, even using my method, to get saturated with the news.

So I give myself a cut off, and go do things to get my mind off of the news, and on to something that's important, or needs to be done here at home.

It's almost like a "Reset" button for me.

a reply to: AnteBellum

I have also noticed that you have to weed through what your topics are to keep them as only topics.
I think all apps eventually try to "help" you get a better experience ... so they say.

One thing that I noticed was some news is verbatim on every site. And they aren't all listed as the same author. So either many people are using pseudonyms or its all lies.