terratogen wrote:
Examples of photo manipulation to create more dramatic news stories. It's odd that they didn't pick out things which didn't have to do with lebanon. This sort of thing is pretty much standard.
Decius wrote:
There is a degree to which the sort of manipulation performed by the media is mirrored by those who expose it, as most have an agenda. Little Green Footballs is a right wing blog. They have an interest in demonstrating a particular kind of media manipulation and only that kind. Noam Chomsky and groups like Ad Busters often demonstrate a different kind of media manipulation, and only that kind.
The media is a megaphone. Input goes in and is amplified. Its interest is in the dramatic, not the true. Its agents create drama where none exists. Those who are skilled at manipulating the media know how to point it toward favored drama. Those who are unskilled risk being the drama pointed at. The media's focus can bring wealth or recrimination, depending on how it comes. Mastering this is the key to mastering the broadcast society.
As we've matured, it has become clear to many of us that the media manipulates. As more information has become available the people are awakening. The political powers have managed this problem by injecting the fantasy that the media is only manipulated by the other guys, never by us. Widespread realization that the media is manipulated by everyone is the next step, but unfortunately few have an interest in such a development.
