Bending Reality: Countering Media Manipulation in the 21st Century
Mainstream media is losing its grip on information. Deception and lies have become the norm, as a handful of corporations and governments have been spoon feeding humanity a version of reality by manufacturing consensus. Revealing the control and ownership command and control structure is essential to understanding what is happening and why, but more importantly, by being able to decode and unmask mainstream propaganda - you will know exactly where the establishment are taking us. Knowing how to navigate this matrix will be the key to survival and sanity in the 21st century.
BIO
Geopolitical analyst and founder of 21st Century Wire.com. A former communications and PR consultant, he became active as an artist and advocate for the peace movement before the Iraq War in 2003, and later as an independent blogger from 2005, and has since produced an impressive range of work as both a writer and documentary filmmaker, and correspondent on the ground covering events in the US, Europe and Middle East. Patrick has worked up close on a number of current, but controversial stories including the UN's global warming hoax, Cyprus banking collapse, G8 protests, Operation Fast and Furious, the Obama birth certificate scandal, the 'War on Terror' and NATO and Israeli subterfuge in the Middle East.
Patrick is recognised by audiences for his ability to contexualise current events and demystify complex systems in a way that makes sense to viewers and readers, as well as utilising 'game theory' as a tool to understand international geopolitics. He is also a regular contributor to Russia Today (RT) and UK Column TV (UKCTV), and host of The Sunday Wire weekly radio show broadcast globally on GMN(US). Other past work includes associate editor of Infowars.com, presenter and producer of 21st Century Wire TV on SKY Channel 191 in 2012-13, published work in The Guardian, New Dawn Magazine, and appearances on Coast to Coast AM, Red Ice Radio, Edge Media TV(UK), ITN, and Al Jazeera.
"Outfoxed" examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know.
The film explores Murdoch's burgeoning kingdom and the impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person.
Media experts, including Jeff Cohen (FAIR) Bob McChesney (Free Press), Chellie Pingree (Common Cause), Jeff Chester (Center for Digital Democracy) and David Brock (Media Matters) provide context and guidance for the story of Fox News and its effect on society.
This documentary also reveals the secrets of Former Fox news producers, reporters, bookers and writers who expose what it's like to work for Fox News. These former Fox employees talk about how they were forced to push a "right-wing" point of view or risk their jobs. Some have even chosen to remain anonymous in order to protect their current livelihoods. As one employee said "There's no sense of integrity as far as having a line that can't be crossed."
¿Se trata de una organización hermética y sectaria o de una organización de inspiración divina totalmente incomprendida? El Opus Dei, una organización conservadora dentro de la Iglesia Católica, se convirtió en centro de atención debido a la forma en la que fue retratada en la novela de Dan Brown «El código Da Vinci». El Opus Dei afirma que en el libro se ofrece una imagen totalmente distorsionada de su organización, que corresponde mucho más a la ficción que a la realidad. Ahora, por primera vez en sus 80 años de historia, los líderes del Opus Dei desean revelar la verdad y desmitificar el conjunto de creencias e imágenes que se han formado sobre este selecto y poderoso grupo. En este documental podrá descubrir la verdad sobre esta organización, fundada en 1928 por el español José María Escrivá de Balaguer, canonizado por el Papa Juan Pablo II el 6 de octubre de 2002, y cuya misión consiste en que sus miembros encuentren a Dios a través del trabajo y la vida diaria.
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. ... In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind." -- Edward Bernays, founder of the public relations industry.
Billions of dollars are spent each year in the United States alone on public relations, a little-understood profession that has become a modern propaganda-for-hire industry. "Publicity" was once the work of carnival hawkers and penny-ante hustlers smoking cigars and wearing cheap suits. Today's PR professionals are recruited from the ranks of former journalists, retired politicians and eager-beaver college graduates eager to rise in the corporate world. They hobnob internationally with corporate CEOs, senators and U.S. presidents. PR wizards concoct and spin the news, organize phony "grassroots" front groups, spy on citizens, and conspire with lobbyists and politicians to thwart democracy. In today's electronic age, they use 800-numbers and telemarketing, advanced databases, and "video news releases" -- entire news stories written, filmed and produced by PR firms and transmitted electronically to thousands of TV stations around the world. Canned news from PR firms is designed to be indistinguishable from real news and is increasingly taking its place, used as "story segments" on TV news shows without any attribution or disclaimer indicating that what viewers are seeing is in fact subtle paid advertisements. On the internet as well, PR firms have created slick websites that promise to inform the public while pushing hidden agendas. Example include:
the Greening Earth Society (funded by the coal industry), which claims that global warming is actually good for the environment the Foundation for Clean Air Progress (which opposes regulations to control air pollution) the African American Republican Leadership Council (a conservative organization headed by white Republicans) Working Families for Wal-Mart (secretly funded, of course, by the Wal-Mart itself) Project Learning Tree (sponsored by the logging industry)
PR firms create front groups as part of what they call the "third party technique." The basic idea, as described by one PR executive, is to "Put your words in someone else's mouth." They realize that their messages are more likely to persuade the public if they come from seemingly independent "third parties" such as a professor or a pediatrician or someone representing a nonprofit citizens' group. The problem is, these third parties are usually anything but neutral. They have been handpicked, cultivated, and meticulously packaged to make you believe what they have to say--preferably in an "objective" format like a news show or a letter to the editor. And in some cases, they have been paid handsomely for their opinions.
Speaker: Sheldon Rampton Sheldon Rampton researches deceptive PR firms for the Center for Media and Democracy and is the co-author, with John Stauber, of books including "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damned Lies and the Public Relations Industry"; "Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With your Future": and "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq." He will discuss the Center's work including its website, Sourcewatch.org, a wiki-powered collaborative research project to document the "names behind the news."
Pour les spécialistes, tel Michel
Desmurget, il n'y a plus de doute : la télévision est un fléau. Elle
exerce une influence profondément négative sur le développement
intellectuel, les résultats scolaires, le langage, l'attention,
l'imagination, la créativité, la violence, le sommeil, le tabagisme,
l'alcoolisme, la sexualité, l'image du corps, le comportement
alimentaire, l'obésité et l'espérance de vie.
Il n’y a pas que les enfants qui ne sont pas contents qu’on éteigne la télé! Est on hypnotisé, dépendant et manipulé par celle-ci ? Est-ce que la TV a une mauvaise influence (avec sa violence par ex.) sur les enfants? Un père, journaliste à la télévision décide d’enquêter: il va des studios Pokemon aux laboratoires de recherche sur les comportements de la General Electrics, de la CIA aux spécialistes des medias comme McLuhan père et fils. En quête de la vérité: Comment la TV attaque nos cerveaux? Des révélations étonnantes et peu connues!
Cruauté, violences psychologiques et sexuelles, humiliations : la téléréalité semble devenue folle. Son arrivée au début des années 2000 ouvrait une nouvelle ère dans l'histoire de l'audiovisuel. Cinquante ans d'archives retracent l'évolution du divertissement : comment la mise en scène de l'intime, dans les années 80, a ouvert un nouveau champ, comment la privatisation des plus grandes chaînes a modifié le rapport au téléspectateur. A l'aide de spécialistes, dont le philosophe Bernard Stiegler, ce documentaire démontre comment l'émotion a fait place à l'exacerbation des pulsions les plus destructrices. (Diffusé sur France2 en 2010)
Comedy series in which Charlie Brooker uses a mix of sketches and jaw-dropping archive footage to explore the gulf between real life and television
Ever wondered why life doesn't measure up to those youthful lofty expectations?
From love and money to fear and progress, Charlie Brooker explores a different universal theme each week as this six-part series attempts to explain where it all went wrong and just how wildly the TV and movie ideal differs from life's grim reality.
Marking the point where the mad daydreams of TV and the sorry reality of real life collide, the series employs a mixture of archive footage, sketches and interviews that will have you wiping away tears of laughter while nodding in recognition, which means you’ll probably have your eye out if you’re not careful.
Documentaire - Media Education Foundation - Canada - 2008 Les
enfants sont soumis à un brainwashing publicitaire intensif, dont ce
documentaire donne une présentation saisissante... Les enfants et leurs
comportements observés au microscope par des publicitaires sans aucun
scrupule pour pénétrer leur cerveau, leur esprit et y inscrire des
marques pour vendre vendre vendre, tout et n'importe quoi pourvu que ça
rapporte. Pire, les nouveaux publicitaires sont d'anciens enfants,
formés dans les écoles remplies de pub...La pub est un danger
démocratique majeur.
Les enfants de la surconsommation Les
enfants, une cible idéale pour l'industrie du marketing qui développe
des stratégies de plus en plus sophistiquées pour atteindre ce jeune
public. Dans ce documentaire de la "media education foundation", un
organisme américain spécialisé dans l'impact des médias sur la culture
et la politique, vous verrez comment, aux États-Unis, les spécialistes
du marketing ciblent les bébés et les enfants de biens des façons,
souvent pernicieuses, afin de s'immiscer dans tous les aspects de la vie
de ses jeunes consommateurs.
Pour les spécialistes, tel Michel Desmurget, il n’y a plus de doute : la télévision est un fléau. Elle exerce une influence profondément négative sur le développement intellectuel, les résultats scolaires, le langage, l’attention, l’imagination, la créativité, la violence, le sommeil, le tabagisme, l’alcoolisme, la sexualité, l’image du corps, le comportement alimentaire, l’obésité et l’espérance de vie.
Ces faits sont niés avec un aplomb fascinant par l’industrie audiovisuelle et son armée d’experts complaisants. La stratégie n’est pas nouvelle : les cigarettiers l’avaient utilisée, en leur temps, pour contester le caractère cancérigène du tabac…
Caméra tenue dans le public par Céline J. (étudiante)
Prise de son Plum'FM
Montage FSL56
His name is carefully guarded from the general public but within the
secretive inner circles of the ultra-rich Dr Alex Hoffmann is a legend –
a visionary scientist whose computer software turns everything it
touches into gold.
Together with his partner, an investment banker, Hoffmann has
developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that tracks
human emotions, enabling it to predict movements in the financial
markets with uncanny accuracy. His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes
billions.
But then in the early hours of the morning, while he lies asleep
with his wife, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of
their lakeside house. So begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and
violence as Hoffmann attempts, with increasing desperation, to
discover who is trying to destroy him.
His quest forces him to confront the deepest questions of what it is
to be human. By the time night falls over Geneva, the financial
markets will be in turmoil and Hoffmann's world – and ours –
transformed forever.
Mind blowing documentary about the History of Secret Programs, Medical Research, and Human Experimentation made by corporations and government institutions such as CIA and the military using behaviorism theories, mind control techniques, dumbing down strategies and ideological propaganda to find ways of controlling people throughout the 20th century. Human Resources explores the rise of mechanistic philosophy and the exploitation of human beings under modern hierarchical systems.
Topics Include; behaviorism, scientific management, work-place democracy, schooling, frustration-aggression hypothesis and human experimentation.
Featuring interviews with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rebecca Lemov, Christopher Simpson, George Ritzer, Morris Berman, John Taylor Gatto, Alfie Kohn and others.
Guy Debord em seu antifilme Sociedade do Espetáculo (1973) demonstra que a Revolução pode sim trazer a liberdade. Os Situacionistas, ou seja, aqueles que criam situações que propiciam o avanço e a materialização dos conceitos libertários conseguiriam pela proliferação de sua prática neutralizar o controle e o efeito nocivo que a televisão, o cinema e os gandes meios de comunicação exercem sobre as massas. O fim dessa repressão psicológica e física sobre o povo representaria a realização da arte, da poesia, da utopia.
El nombre "Opus Dei" (Obra de Dios) resulta sorprendentemente familiar en Chile. Todo el mundo lo ha oído alguna vez y muchos –sabiéndolo o no- lo viven en su vida diaria, especialmente en la educación. Muy pocos, por lo demás, se escandalizan al escuchar sobre su presencia en los círculos económicos y de poder. Y es que casi nadie sabe exactamente qué es la organización católica extremista fundada por Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer. Después de I love Pinochet, Marcela Said, chilena radicada en Francia, trató de averiguarlo junto a Jean de Certeau, montajista de documentales y productor de I love..., que firma aquí su primera realización. Cuatro años después, y tras todo tipo de dificultades, Opus Dei, una cruzada silenciosa vio la luz con algunas presentaciones en salas y festivales, pero principalmente al pasar por televisión, para la que fue concebido. En Chile debiera verse más adelante. la actitud es lo más imparcial posible, motivada por una curiosidad respetuosa, aunque sin esconder la postura crítica. Si hay "denuncia" es a través de la enunciación. Si hay juicio, en última instancia es el espectador quien lo formula tras escuchar a unos y otros. En Opus Dei... por lo demás, la palabra está dada prioritariamente a los propios miembros de "la Obra" (nombre con el que es conocido el grupo entre sus miembros). Un punto fuerte del panorama entregado por Said y De Certeau es la variedad de las visiones "desde dentro". No hay una voz oficial, sino que el cuadro que logramos armarnos, aunque incompleto, está compuesto por personalidades con más autoridad, numerarios, parientes de miembros, supernumerarios, y un chocante descubrimiento (para los ignorantes en cultura Opus): las numerarias auxiliares, reclutadas entre las clases populares para las tareas más básicas, como las domésticas, y que además de vivir permanentemente en subordinación ("Dios creó el orden social por algo, no hay que tratar de cambiarlo", reza su credo) entregan su sueldo a la Obra. También se vislumbra la relación entre la secta y los grupos de poder a través testimonios de figuras como Ronald Bown (presidente de la Asociación de Exportadores de Chile) o simplemente descubriendo el cruce de nombres en las distintas esferas
Rebooting Democracy
a public lecture by Lawrence Lessig
May 27, 2010
Filene Auditorium, Dartmouth College
The Ronna and Edward J. Goldstein 1962 Fund
for Distinguished Visitors in Film Studies
Co-sponsored with
The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center,
The Dartmouth College Library,
Dartmouth Computing Services and Research Computing,
The Institute for Security, Technology and Society
and The Department of Film and Media Studies
They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the "next big thing" that will snare the attention of their prey--a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year.
They are the merchants of cool: creators and sellers of popular culture who have made teenagers the hottest consumer demographic in America. But are they simply reflecting teen desires or have they begun to manufacture those desires in a bid to secure this lucrative market? And have they gone too far in their attempts to reach the hearts--and wallets--of America's youth?
FRONTLINE correspondent Douglas Rushkoff examines the tactics, techniques, and cultural ramifications of these marketing moguls in "The Merchants of Cool." Produced by Barak Goodman and Rachel Dretzin, the program talks with top marketers, media executives and cultural/media critics, and explores the symbiotic relationship between the media and today's teens, as each looks to the other for their identity.
Teenagers are the hottest consumer demographic in America. At 33 million strong, they comprise the largest generation of teens America has ever seen--larger, even, than the much-ballyhooed Baby Boom generation. Last year, America's teens spent $100 billion, while influencing their parents' spending to the tune of another $50 billion.
But marketing to teens isn't as easy as it sounds. Marketers have to find a way to seem real: true to the lives and attitudes of teenagers; in short, to become cool themselves. To that end, they search out the next cool thing and have adopted an almost anthropological approach to studying teens and analyzing their every move as if they were animals in the wild.
Take MTV. Long considered to be the arbiter of teen cool, the late 1990s saw MTV's ratings on the wane. To counter the slide, MTV embarked on a major teen research campaign, the hallmark of which was its "ethnography study"-- visiting teens' homes to view first hand their lives, interests and ask some quite personal questions.
But what lessons do MTV and other companies draw from this exhaustive and expensive study of teenagers' lives? Does it result in a more nuanced portrait of the American teen? In "The Merchants of Cool," FRONTLINE introduces viewers to the "mook" and the "midriff" -- the stock characters that MTV and others have resorted to in order to hook the teen consumer.
The "midriff"--the character pitched at teenage girls, is the highly-sexualized, world-weary sophisticate that increasingly populates television shows such as Dawson's Creek and films such as Cruel Intentions. Even more appealing to marketers is the "midriff's" male counterpart, the "mook." Characterized mainly by his infantile, boorish behavior, the "mook" is a perpetual adolescent: crude, misogynistic--and very, very, angry.
But also very lucrative. To appeal to the "mook," MTV has created programs such as Spring Break -- a televised version of teen beach debauchery--as well as a weekly program capitalizing on the current wrestling craze.
"What this system does is it closely studies the young, keeps them under constant surveillance to figure out what will push their buttons," says media critic Mark Crispin Miller. "And it blares it back at them relentlessly and everywhere."
Of course, there is resistance to the commercial machine. FRONTLINE takes viewers to downtown Detroit, where media analyst Rushkoff speaks with teens at a concert by the Detroit-based Insane Clown Posse, purveyors of a genre of music that's become known as "rage rock." When asked to describe what appeals to them about such music, the teens invariably respond that it belongs to them; it hasn't yet been taken and sold back to them at the mall. Full of profanity, violence, and misogyny, rage rock is literally a challenge thrown up to marketers: just try to market this!
But marketers have accepted the challenge: rage rock is now big business. Not only has Insane Clown Posse become mainstream, but much bigger acts like Eminem and Limp Bizkit are breaking sales records and winning industry accolades in the form of Grammy nominations and other mainstream music awards.
In "The Merchants of Cool," correspondent Rushkoff details how MTV and other huge commercial outlets orchestrated the rise of Limp Bizkit--despite the group's objectionable lyrics--and then relentlessly promoted them on-air.
But in doing so, critics ask, is MTV truly reflecting the desires of today's teenagers, or are they stoking a cultural infatuation with music and imagery that glorifies violence and sex as well as antisocial behavior and attitudes?
In today's media-saturated environment, such questions, it seems, are becoming increasingly difficult to answer.
"It's one enclosed feedback loop," Rushkoff says. "Kids' culture and media culture are now one and the same, and it becomes impossible to tell which came first--the anger or the marketing of the anger."
Therein lies the danger of today's teen-driven economy, observers say: As everyone from record promoters to TV executives to movie producers besieges today's teens with pseudo-authentic marketing pitches, teenagers increasingly look to the media to provide them with a ready-made identity predicated on today's version of what's cool. Rather than empowering youngsters, the incessant focus on their wants and desires leaves them adrift in a sea of conflicting marketing messages.
"Kids feel frustrated and lonely today because they are encouraged to feel that way," Miller tells FRONTLINE. "You know, advertising has always sold anxiety and it certainly sells anxiety to the young. It's always telling them that they are not thin enough, they're not pretty enough, they don't have the right friends, or they have no friends...they're losers unless they're cool. But I don't think anybody, deep down, really feels cool enough, ever."
And as more and more teens look to the media to define what they should think and how they should behave, even some cool hunters are no longer sure that their work isn't having a negative impact.
"Even though I work at MTV...I am starting to see the world more like someone who's approaching forty than someone who's twenty," says Brian Graden, the channel's president of programming. "And I can't help but be worried that we are throwing so much at young adults so fast. And that there is no amount of preparation or education or even love that you could give a child to be ready."
Advertising & the End of the World features an illustrated presentation by Sut Jhally of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the producer and writer of the award-winning Dreamworlds series.
Focusing directly on the world of commercial images, he asks some basic questions about the cultural messages emanating from this market-based view of the world: Do our present arrangements deliver what they claim -- happiness and satisfaction? Can we think about our collective as well as our private interests? And, can we think long-term as well as short-term?
Drawing from the broad arena of commercial imagery, and utilizing sophisticated graphics, Advertising & the End of the World addresses the issues these questions raise, encouraging viewers to reflect on their own participation in the culture of consumption.
Making the connection between society's high-consumption lifestyle and the coming environmental crisis, Jhally forces us to evaluate the physical and material costs of the consumer society and how long we can maintain our present level of production.
Sections: Advertising as Culture | How Do We Become Happy? | What Is Society? | How Far into the Future Can We Think? | Imagining a Different Future
El filósofo Michel Serres da una lección concisa de ecología anti-publicidad: una lucha inteligente para el medio ambiente debería empezar con cuidar nuestros deseos, nuestro universo mental.
Filósofos, artistas y activistas pueden ayudarnos en esa tarea.
Le philosophe Michel Serres donne une leçon concise d´écologie anti publicité: une lutte intelligente pour l'environnement devrait commencer en prenant soin de nos désirs, de notre univers mental.
Philosophes, artistes et activistes peuvent nous aider dans cette tâche.
Eduardo Galeano: "El mundo se divide en indignos e indignados"
The Crime of Ecocide
http://www.pollyhiggins.com/
"... move away from property laws to trusteeship laws, so rather than I own, to I owe. I owe a duty of care to this planet."
12-year old Victoria Grant explains why Canada (her homeland) and most of the world, is in debt.
"How the Media Frames Political Issues" by Scott London
In The Emergence of American Political Issues (1977) McCombs and Shaw state that the most important effect of the mass media is "its ability to mentally order and organize our world for us. In short, the mass media may not be successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about."[13] The presidential observer Theodore White corroborates this conclusion in The Making of a President (1972):
The power of the press in America is a primordial one. It sets the agenda of public discussion; and this sweeping political power is unrestrained by any law. It determines what people will talk and think about - an authority that in other nations is reserved for tyrants, priests, parties and mandarins.[14]
McCombs and Shaw also note that the media's tendency to structure voters' perceptions of political reality in effect constitutes a bias: "to a considerable degree the art of politics in a democracy is the art of determining which issue dimensions are of major interest to the public or can be made salient in order to win public support."[15] http://www.scottlondon.com/reports/frames.html
I am just an anonymous citizen who firmly believes that we are the ones we are always waiting for. No saviors, heroes, leaders, gurus, or superior or inferior, we are all equals, and we need to think and behave as if it matters.
