Subtle imprinting in magazine article poll....Orwellian

It's just so odd. More than a few of my new threads are in this forum, Dissecting Disinformation. I think maybe I notice things in media that has deeper or dual messages.

Disclaimer over. My lefty-fem cousin, who I have mentioned before because she just took down her Hillary sign after 111 days after the election...
She reads aloud a "poll" from some current magazine which has Obama on the cover, of all things. It's a two part message, first it cites a study that says people on the internet are more sad than the general public, plus a few other symptoms.

Ok, we all know it's easy to produce a fake report that asserts a study, basically you can get it to say anything you want in a survey. Old people have one opinion and young people another to a set of standard questions. So you know how to structure the study to get the desired result...no big deal.

On the surface it just seems like a print media vs online media hit piece. Imprint the idea that informed internet people are sad, really just to degrade them along with boosting a false sense of self-righteousness for people who read stupid magazines, which suits my cousin's churchy-lefty-schoolteacher mindset. I can't think of the name of it, I will find out. It's like a political version People mag plus AARP for the left or whatever.

Ok, is this worthy of a post, a dumb hit piece? What I thought made it clever, and I want opinions on it, is the second part of the article, the "poll". It asks readers to (somehow) express their approval of a bunch of silly NAMES for the "disease"! Like; "Twittergrim..." In doing so, it skips right over the validity of the study it relies upon, strait to asking for input assigning a name to it. That's brilliant. It seems to have an Orwellian pattern, maybe the two-part premise, maybe the Newspeak aspect....can't put my finger on it. Maybe too, the connection that 1984 is also print media itself, ironically.

I loled with my wife, people who think and believe this way are indoctrinated. The message is sublimated, but also making the reader a participant in....I guess fighting against....sad people?

I hope I developed this idea enough to make it interesting. I was actually kind of offended. As-if internet and Facebook type people are actually more sad. The last I checked, chatting to friends and posting vacation pics was kind of fun.

Gonna have to link the publication.

Sources, and all that.

The magazine isn't right in front of me, or I would have. I pretty much dictated the body of it anyway.

This is more about the analysis...

It's deceitful yes, but not quite Orweilian that they adding trickery because they are losing subscribers. Besides that is party right as it is, other studies have shown that constant Facebook users are more depressed because they constantly are bombarded by positives(vacations, new material items, etc.) from what people share making them feel inadequate.

Social media is a modern "Keeping up with the Jonses". The difference is a lot of it is not only someone selling something, such as their global vacation blogs that earn then cash but cat fishing(yes, fake accounts) as well, with people following outside of their personal friends and family.

a reply to: FlyingFox
Come on Foxy, use your intelligence. If it's a Democratic magazine the majority of subscribers will be democrats. The same for republicans. So if they ran a survey it would almost certainly come up in their favor. That's how surveys are skewed.

Today's propaganda styles are mixed from MaxHeadroom and 1984.

I will secure said publication later today.

a reply to: FlyingFox

Better if we had the source, but can understand why we don't. The programming described seems so obvious, it's frightening to think how many people won't even notice it. I almost never bother with magazines, myself, but would guess there is a lot of that sort of thing in them these days.

Sorry about that. It's in my mom's hospital room, and Im preoccupied when I visit.

It's very formulaic, introduce a false premise, then re-enforce it with a participatory act....a committal.

I do a bunch of political action type ads for a local race. I've very proud of the meme warfare composites I've created. I like to think of myself as pretty astute in the propaganda dept. My detector is pretty sensitive.

a reply to: FlyingFox





Take a picture with a camera or phone that can hook up to the computer and upload it to ATS please!

The Week - All you need to know about everything that matters

theweek.com...

theweek.com

It looks like a somewhat serious publication. However, there's a "news quiz" section, which fits the propaganda model of reinforcement.

I can't find the article online this moment, it seems like maybe a side story. I will be getting another look at the printed copy in a day. It's the May 12 edition.

Edit to point out the tagline in the title, "All you need to know..." I think maybe the whole publication is designed social engineering.