- #1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation
- # 2 Security and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA
- # 3 InfraGard: The FBI Deputizes Business
- # 4 ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?
- # 5 Seizing War Protesters’ Assets
- # 6 The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act
- # 7 Guest Workers Inc.: Fraud and Human Trafficking
- # 8 Executive Orders Can Be Changed Secretly
- #9 Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Testify
- # 10 APA Complicit in CIA Torture
- # 11 El Salvador’s Water Privatization and the Global War on Terror
- # 12 Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From No Child Left Behind
- # 13 Tracking Billions of Dollars Lost in Iraq
- # 14 Mainstreaming Nuclear Waste
- # 15 Worldwide Slavery
- # 16 Annual Survey on Trade Union Rights
- # 17 UN’s Empty Declaration of Indigenous Rights
- # 18 Cruelty and Death in Juvenile Detention Centers
- # 19 Indigenous Herders and Small Farmers Fight Livestock Extinction
- # 20 Marijuana Arrests Set New Record
- # 21 NATO Considers “First Strike” Nuclear Option
- # 22 CARE Rejects US Food Aid
- # 23 FDA Complicit in Pushing Pharmaceutical Drugs
- # 24 Japan Questions 9/11 and the Global War on Terror
- # 25 Bush’s Real Problem with Eliot Spitzer
Thursday
Top 25 Censored Stories 2009
How to Read a Newspaper
How to Read a Newspaper for National and International News
To take command of the way the mass media influence your thinking about the world, you must learn how to see through their biases and appreciate dissenting as well as mainstream points of view. Only then can you come to well-reasoned conclusions using a balanced approach. At present, few people have developed the skills to do this.
- interpret events from the perspective of multiple views
- find multiple sources of thought and information, not simply those of the mass media
- identify the viewpoints embedded in news stories
- mentally re-write (reconstruct) news stories through awareness of how stories are told from multiple perspectives
- assess news stories for their clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, and significance
- identify contradictions and inconsistencies in the news (often in the same story)
- identify the agenda and interests served by a story
- identify the facts covered and the facts ignored in a news story
- identify the points of view systematically presented in a favorable light and those presented in an unfavorable light
Monday
Top Censored Stories 2008
- #1 No Habeas Corpus for “Any Person”
- #2 Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
- # 3 AFRICOM: US Military Control of Africa’s Resources
- # 4 Frenzy of Increasingly Destructive Trade Agreements
- #5 Human Traffic Builds US Embassy in Iraq
- #6 Operation FALCON Raids
- #7 Behind Blackwater Inc.
- #8 KIA: The US Neoliberal Invasion of India
- #9 Privatization of America’s Infrastructure
- # 10 Vulture Funds Threaten Poor Nations’ Debt Relief
- # 11 The Scam of “Reconstruction” in Afghanistan
- # 12 Another Massacre in Haiti by UN Troops
- # 13 Immigrant Roundups to Gain Cheap Labor for US Corporate Giants
- # 14 Impunity for US War Criminals
- # 15 Toxic Exposure Can Be Transmitted to Future Generations on a “Second Genetic Code”
- #16 No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden to 9/11
- # 17 Drinking Water Contaminated by Military and Corporations
- # 18 Mexico’s Stolen Election
- # 19 People’s Movement Challenges Neoliberal Agenda
- # 20 Terror Act Against Animal Activists
- # 21 US Seeks WTO Immunity for Illegal Farm Payments
- # 22 North Invades Mexico
- # 23 Feinstein’s Conflict of Interest in Iraq
- # 24 Media Misquotes Threat From Iran’s President
- # 25 Who Will Profit from Native Energy?
Wednesday
New practice: murketing
murketing
n.
A form or marketing where the product or service is not mentioned or shown. [Blend of murky and marketing.]
—murketer n.
"I, unlike the DMA and 21st Century MUrketing [sic], realize that
mutual consent is a requirement for economic transactions in a free
society regardless of attempts to characterize those transactions as
speech."
—Joe Moore, "MEDIA: Rebuttal from 21st Century Marketing in DMNews.com," news.admin.net-abuse.email, December 7, 1999
n.
A form or marketing where the product or service is not mentioned or shown. [Blend of murky and marketing.]
—murketer n.
"I, unlike the DMA and 21st Century MUrketing [sic], realize that
mutual consent is a requirement for economic transactions in a free
society regardless of attempts to characterize those transactions as
speech."
—Joe Moore, "MEDIA: Rebuttal from 21st Century Marketing in DMNews.com," news.admin.net-abuse.email, December 7, 1999
Monday
Ad Creep Hits the Bike Lanes
from treehugger:
"We have complained before about ad creep, how the public
realm is being taken over by private marketers. I don’t know if I
should be happy or sad that the Egg Farmers of Canada have determined
that there are enough cyclists in London, Ontario that they want to pay
to advertise to them by painting ads onto bike lanes."
Tuesday
Dude, Where’s My Advertising? 10 Disturbing Trends in Subliminal Persuasion
Some of the biggest advertisers are taking their advertising away from full page ads and television spots and spending up on hidden persuasion. You won't find these secret messages in ice-cubes or flickering film footage like they were in the sixties. Subliminal advertising has gone mainstream - fake news, mind control scripts, propaganda and stealth voicemail are in wide use by corporations, government bodies, and industry groups. Have you spotted any of these?
1. Point of Sale Mind Control Scripts
Clothing store staff and car salesmen use them to close the deal - carefully planned questions and subverbal cues to get you to sign. If you’ve ever walked out of a store, after spending twice as much as you wanted to, chances are you’ve fallen victim to one of these scripts. The GAPACT is used by Gap staff to upsell you. Other salesmen use word techniques to make you buy, even when you don’t have the money - because they make more by selling you 'easy' finance. When a car salesmen takes you on a test drive and asks you “Is this the type of vehicle you would like to own?”, he is using a subtle mental framing trick - it can create an embarrassing distraction while you drive. The technique is called disassociation - which is the ideal state for mental manipulation.
2. Doctor-Patient Drug Kick-backs
When a doctor recommends a certain heart medication or an antidepressant, chances are he has been paid a cash bonuses and perks by the manufacturer, making it difficult to give objective advice. Some pharmaceutical firms have gone so far as to invent and promote a new syndrome in order to create a market for a new drug! Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) was devised in 1998 and publicised by planting fifty press stories and quizzes such as: “Do you have social anxiety disorder?”. Soon after, Smithkline Beecham released Paxil - the 'cure' for SAD.
3. In-Store Sensory Manipulation
Scientifically tested visual displays, Muzak tapes, and even mind altering scents combine to maximize impulse spending. Specially designed music loops can keep shoppers in the supermarket for 18% longer. One study into use of airborne aromas, pumped into a Canadian mall, resulted in an increase of over $50 per customer that week. In supermarkets, scientifically generated Planograms create the ideal shelf arrangement for certain products, skewing the shopper's eyes towards high value items. Companies pay slotting allowances for favoured placement. Aisle layout are change regularly - which prevents systematic shopping - forcing extra trips past the impulse item displays.
4. Renting Conversations
Positive buzz can be triggered artificially for a price. Marketers now recruit secret 'buzz agents' to promote to their friends and family. One buzz agency claims to have an army of agents in every major US city. Their job is to mention or display certain products as they go about their day, using their relationships as marketing channels. Music labels, book sellers, entertainment venues, and fashion outlets are using this method to establish new brands. Today’s billion dollar 12-16 year olds are so immune to traditional advertising, mass media is no longer a reliable persuasive device - so the alternative is a 'synthetic grapevine’!
5. Neuromarketing
Corporations are going to enormous lengths to probe the minds of consumers - literally tapping into their brains. The Brighthouse Institute for Thought Sciences, in Atlanta, is one lab that is scanning people's brains with MRIs, in an effort to decode and record our subconscious thoughts and devise more seductive advertising. The process is being called neuromarketing. They are hoping to determine specific biological triggers that can be used by language engineers to stimulate purchases. This is the hi-tech fulfilment of pioneer psychologists Freud and Jung who established the connection between language and behaviour.
6. Chatbots and Stealth Voicemail
Personal phone messages from businesses or political campaigners can turn up in your morning voicemail, having been delivered late the previous night. Voicemail broadcasters like DialAmerica uses massive computer installations to deliver identical copies of spoken messages to millions of householder simultaneously. On the internet, chat room 'bots' masquerading as personal real buddies are actually distributed simultaneously by powerful computers 24 hours a day. Virtual word-of-mouth communication is replacing other promotional technologies because of its speed and price.
7. Real-time Bugging of Personal Data
Your browser is probably revealing more than you might want: your location, the software and hardware you are using, details of other links you clicked on and your browsing habits. Many third party dataminers use 'cookies' to track your path across the web. Extensive realtime information is processed to target you. Larger databases harvest your personal medical and financial records to be bought and sold by interested companies and government departments. Datamining is a fuzzy science that filters you personal information for links about your personal behaviour and finances. These details are used in turn to create elaborate marketing campaigns to sell you more stuff.
8. Sidewalk Stalkers
The public space of streets, neighborhoods and communities is being mapped and targeted by viral marketers and fake grassroots organizations. In some cases the campaigns are overt but, increasingly, street 'agents' are making unannounced social approaches. Fake tourists flash around the latest camera-phone to passing crowds. 'Product seeders' circulate at sports events to find influential young players to wear their gear. Others wander the street wearing colored corporate tattoos. Personal space is the last frontier for commerce. As citizens attempt to retreat from the deluge of media advertising they can now be stalked when they step out the door.
9. Planted News Stories
Industry front groups, public relations firms and government departments are planting news stories on TV, radio, newspapers and the web. Those 'miracle drug' stories or research reports are often Video News Release (VNRs). TV newsrooms love these prepackaged news items that are distributed across the networks. It saves them time and money but it is killing community news and genuine investigative reporting. Real news items are being replaced by slick corporate promotions and political messages. According to one Nielsen Media Research Survey, about 80 percent of U.S. news directors air VNRs several times a month, and all American television newsrooms now use VNRs in their newscasts.
10. Government Propaganda
When it's time to launch a war or promote an unpopular policy, the government needs special help to sell the idea through the media. Opinion engineers are paid to "manage" public perception of inconvenient facts, and turn them around for better. Using the universal tools fear, patriotism, and phrase repitition, these high flying spin doctors can easily sway the population. The most successful public relations campaigns aim to change public perception without our awareness of the campaign. They are typically launched by governments, institutions and countries who need to change their public image, restore their reputation or manipulate public opinion. There are PR firms today who advise dictatorships, dishonest politicians and corrupt industries to cover up environmental catastrophes and human rights violations.
Martin Howard is a media researcher and author of We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind - an illustrated consumer guide for today's citizens. It is the first attempt to catalog the hundreds of methods used to control and persuade us. Chapters cover cult tactics, rogue computer programs, undercover sales agents and data mining. The hybrid book uses colourful diagrams, cartoons and quizes to engage the interest of younger readers and average consumers. It outlines hundreds of examples and offers pointers to resources for further research.
www.howtheychangeyourmind.com
1. Point of Sale Mind Control Scripts
Clothing store staff and car salesmen use them to close the deal - carefully planned questions and subverbal cues to get you to sign. If you’ve ever walked out of a store, after spending twice as much as you wanted to, chances are you’ve fallen victim to one of these scripts. The GAPACT is used by Gap staff to upsell you. Other salesmen use word techniques to make you buy, even when you don’t have the money - because they make more by selling you 'easy' finance. When a car salesmen takes you on a test drive and asks you “Is this the type of vehicle you would like to own?”, he is using a subtle mental framing trick - it can create an embarrassing distraction while you drive. The technique is called disassociation - which is the ideal state for mental manipulation.
2. Doctor-Patient Drug Kick-backs
When a doctor recommends a certain heart medication or an antidepressant, chances are he has been paid a cash bonuses and perks by the manufacturer, making it difficult to give objective advice. Some pharmaceutical firms have gone so far as to invent and promote a new syndrome in order to create a market for a new drug! Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) was devised in 1998 and publicised by planting fifty press stories and quizzes such as: “Do you have social anxiety disorder?”. Soon after, Smithkline Beecham released Paxil - the 'cure' for SAD.
3. In-Store Sensory Manipulation
Scientifically tested visual displays, Muzak tapes, and even mind altering scents combine to maximize impulse spending. Specially designed music loops can keep shoppers in the supermarket for 18% longer. One study into use of airborne aromas, pumped into a Canadian mall, resulted in an increase of over $50 per customer that week. In supermarkets, scientifically generated Planograms create the ideal shelf arrangement for certain products, skewing the shopper's eyes towards high value items. Companies pay slotting allowances for favoured placement. Aisle layout are change regularly - which prevents systematic shopping - forcing extra trips past the impulse item displays.
4. Renting Conversations
Positive buzz can be triggered artificially for a price. Marketers now recruit secret 'buzz agents' to promote to their friends and family. One buzz agency claims to have an army of agents in every major US city. Their job is to mention or display certain products as they go about their day, using their relationships as marketing channels. Music labels, book sellers, entertainment venues, and fashion outlets are using this method to establish new brands. Today’s billion dollar 12-16 year olds are so immune to traditional advertising, mass media is no longer a reliable persuasive device - so the alternative is a 'synthetic grapevine’!
5. Neuromarketing
Corporations are going to enormous lengths to probe the minds of consumers - literally tapping into their brains. The Brighthouse Institute for Thought Sciences, in Atlanta, is one lab that is scanning people's brains with MRIs, in an effort to decode and record our subconscious thoughts and devise more seductive advertising. The process is being called neuromarketing. They are hoping to determine specific biological triggers that can be used by language engineers to stimulate purchases. This is the hi-tech fulfilment of pioneer psychologists Freud and Jung who established the connection between language and behaviour.
6. Chatbots and Stealth Voicemail
Personal phone messages from businesses or political campaigners can turn up in your morning voicemail, having been delivered late the previous night. Voicemail broadcasters like DialAmerica uses massive computer installations to deliver identical copies of spoken messages to millions of householder simultaneously. On the internet, chat room 'bots' masquerading as personal real buddies are actually distributed simultaneously by powerful computers 24 hours a day. Virtual word-of-mouth communication is replacing other promotional technologies because of its speed and price.
7. Real-time Bugging of Personal Data
Your browser is probably revealing more than you might want: your location, the software and hardware you are using, details of other links you clicked on and your browsing habits. Many third party dataminers use 'cookies' to track your path across the web. Extensive realtime information is processed to target you. Larger databases harvest your personal medical and financial records to be bought and sold by interested companies and government departments. Datamining is a fuzzy science that filters you personal information for links about your personal behaviour and finances. These details are used in turn to create elaborate marketing campaigns to sell you more stuff.
8. Sidewalk Stalkers
The public space of streets, neighborhoods and communities is being mapped and targeted by viral marketers and fake grassroots organizations. In some cases the campaigns are overt but, increasingly, street 'agents' are making unannounced social approaches. Fake tourists flash around the latest camera-phone to passing crowds. 'Product seeders' circulate at sports events to find influential young players to wear their gear. Others wander the street wearing colored corporate tattoos. Personal space is the last frontier for commerce. As citizens attempt to retreat from the deluge of media advertising they can now be stalked when they step out the door.
9. Planted News Stories
Industry front groups, public relations firms and government departments are planting news stories on TV, radio, newspapers and the web. Those 'miracle drug' stories or research reports are often Video News Release (VNRs). TV newsrooms love these prepackaged news items that are distributed across the networks. It saves them time and money but it is killing community news and genuine investigative reporting. Real news items are being replaced by slick corporate promotions and political messages. According to one Nielsen Media Research Survey, about 80 percent of U.S. news directors air VNRs several times a month, and all American television newsrooms now use VNRs in their newscasts.
10. Government Propaganda
When it's time to launch a war or promote an unpopular policy, the government needs special help to sell the idea through the media. Opinion engineers are paid to "manage" public perception of inconvenient facts, and turn them around for better. Using the universal tools fear, patriotism, and phrase repitition, these high flying spin doctors can easily sway the population. The most successful public relations campaigns aim to change public perception without our awareness of the campaign. They are typically launched by governments, institutions and countries who need to change their public image, restore their reputation or manipulate public opinion. There are PR firms today who advise dictatorships, dishonest politicians and corrupt industries to cover up environmental catastrophes and human rights violations.
Martin Howard is a media researcher and author of We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind - an illustrated consumer guide for today's citizens. It is the first attempt to catalog the hundreds of methods used to control and persuade us. Chapters cover cult tactics, rogue computer programs, undercover sales agents and data mining. The hybrid book uses colourful diagrams, cartoons and quizes to engage the interest of younger readers and average consumers. It outlines hundreds of examples and offers pointers to resources for further research.
www.howtheychangeyourmind.com
Propaganda by Edward Bernays (FULL TEXT)
Propaganda by Edward Bernays (1928): "THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. "
Thursday
Why you might soon think you're hearing things
Why you might soon think you're hearing things: "A technology that beams sound directly into people's ears has advertisers salivating, but as Vito Pilieci writes, critics fear yet another invasion of privacy. After more than a decade of development, technology that directs a beam of sound straight into a person's eardrums is ready for primetime. The technology works by beaming waves of hypersonic sound at a pitch that is undetectable by the human ear. The waves continue until they smash into an object such as a person's body. The waves then slow, mix and re-create the original audio broadcast. If the person steps out of the waves, they are no longer obstructed and are rendered inaudible."
Wednesday
Media's Military Analysts in Propaganda Drive
Media's Military Analysts Involved in "Psyops on Steroids" | Center for Media and Democracy: "In early 2002, as 'detailed planning for a possible Iraq invasion' began, then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke launched the Pentagon military analyst program as 'the main focus of the public relations push to construct a case for war,' reports David Barstow. The gist of the program was the recruitment of 'key influentials' to help sell a wary public on the war. The former Hill & Knowlton executive and her senior aide, Brent Krueger, signed up more than 75 retired military officers, who appeared on television and radio news shows as military analysts, and/or penned newspaper op/ed columns."
US Military Propaganda on the News
Embedding Military Propagandists into the News Media | Center for Media and Democracy: "David Barstow of the New York Times has written the first installment in what is already a stunning exposé of the Bush Administration's most powerful propaganda weapon used to sell and manage the war on Iraq: the embedding of military propagandists directly into the TV networks as on-air commentators. We and others have long criticized the widespread TV network practice of hiring former military officials to serve as analysts, but even in our most cynical moments we did not anticipate how bad it was. As Barstow has painstakingly documented, these analysts, most of them military industry consultants and lobbyists, were directly chosen, managed, coordinated and given their talking points by the Pentagon's ministers of propaganda. "
Friday
Neuromarketing: the ad-man's ultimate tool
Neuromarketing: the ad-man's ultimate tool: "Neuroscience and marketing had a love child a few years back. Its name - big surprise - is neuromarketing, and the ugly little fellow is growing up. Corporate pitchmen have always wanted to get inside our skulls. The more accurately they can predict how we'll react to stimuli in the marketplace, from prices to packages to adverts, the more money they can pull from our pockets and transfer to their employers' coffers."
Wednesday
Media's Geographical Bias - Interactive Map
Media's Geographical Bias - Interactive Map: ""
These maps allow you to grasp several media trends at a glance. First, traditional newspapers are highly selective in their coverage of world news. Looking at the three British dailies, editors favour countries that are bigger and more populous, but also closer to home and better developed. They also give more room to the countries of origin of British immigrants, especially if they are white (look at the size of Australia and New-Zealand). Hardly surprising, but still disheartening, especially when you consider that the only brand that does not advocate objectivity, The Economist, covers the world more equally.
Tuesday
Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You
To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You - New York Times: "A new analysis of online consumer data shows that large Web companies are learning more about people than ever from what they search for and do on the Internet, gathering clues about the tastes and preferences of a typical user several hundred times a month.
These companies use that information to predict what content and advertisements people most likely want to see. They can charge steep prices for carefully tailored ads because of their high response rates.
The analysis, conducted for The New York Times by the research firm comScore, provides what advertising executives say is the first broad estimate of the amount of consumer data that is transmitted to Internet companies."
Undisclosed ads that look like personal blogs
Heidi, of course, isn’t any more real than the characters in television advertising. But while a television viewer is aware that he or she is watching advertising, those viewing the blog or her posters at Hunter thought they were learning about the experiences of a real student — not a class project crafted by an industry association (that was sufficiently proud to boast about it).
Saturday
Nielsen Making Brain Waves %u2014 Commercial Alert
Nielsen Making Brain Waves - Commercial Alert: "The Nielsen Co. is to announce today a strategic investment in and alliance with NeuroFocus, which specializes in the practice of measuring brain waves to determine consumers responses to marketing messages. As part of the deal, Nielsen will be the exclusive provider of NeuroFocus research, which also covers eye-tracking and skin-conductivity measurements, to film studios and TV networks to monitor audience responses to content as well as promos, trailers and other marketing materials."
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