Generation Like

We are facing an evolution of social media.
Teenagers spend more and more time on technology which they do not know exactly what it is. Lately we are questioning it, however we might be asking ourselves the wrong questions. We shouldn't be asking ourselves what is the problem with technology but what companies are doing to us through it.

Back in 2001, companies were going out hunting for things that teens liked, to be able to exploit that and sell it. Now however teens are putting everything they like out there for everyone to see. They tell the world what they think is cool, starting with their own online profiles. Kids now may seem more sophisticated compared to ones in 2001, however they have a weakness-> likes. Likes, follows, retweets, views, they are the social currency of todays generation. The more likes you have, the better you feel. You get them and you give them but the number is always there for everyone to see. When a kid likes something online, whether it be a product or a celebrity, it becomes a part of who they are, a part of there identity, which they broadcast to the world. Kids today are what they like.

For example, Ceili Linn likes the hunger games a lot. Her tumblr blog and twitter feed are full of links to the billion dollar franchise. She found a website which hosted contests for all the hunger games fans, which she took part in. This is the movies official website which allows teens to win virtual prizes by posting its content on twitter. Ceili has therefore earned the title as one of the biggest fans in the world. For her this is an accomplishment as for it proves that she is in fact one of the few people that like the hunger games the most. Today's teens,more than any generation before them, can speak directly to the celebrities and artists which they like. They are likely to get a reply and this is what motivates them to share further. Mostly because once a kid likes something and that thing likes her back, other kids notice, so they like her too. Once teens have created an online identity they have an array of tools which they can use to express themselves to anyone interested enough to listen. Another good example of this is Tyler Oakly, who posts regular videos on youtube talking about the things he likes. Like Ceili and her hunger games, Tyler Oakly is obsessed with pop culture.  He's much like Ceili on steroids, and social media lets him share his obsessions with the world. Getting people to listen to you and be 'all about' something which you like is big business.

Major corporations have spent millions trying to get kids to engage with their brands, however now that the way kids consume media has changed companies that want to reach them recognise that they have to change too. The like button, retweet button, the subscribe button, all of these are the biggest transformation which we have had in terms of communicating with consumers in our lifetime. Therefore to not learn how to participate in those channels, is outrageous. Standing on the sideline is not an option. The owner of Oreo, for example, recognises that when kids like something it becomes art of who they are and if they want to do so by liking his companies products, he is happy to oblige.  Take the issue of same sex marriage, if you are in favour of it and want the world to know oreo is there to help. (oreo posted a picture of their cookie with a multicoloured filling  representing same sex marriage and got a million likes). The Facebook Oreo website enabled a simple things such as a cookie to have a perspective on life, and one which people could agree with. A million people liked just that one post in order to say that they agree with that and that it speaks to them. That is profound, those are some big numbers, numbers which a re extremely valuable. Currently there is a huge corporate push to collect as much data as possible. When you hit like or when you create an expression online you are creating data, you are creating a demographic profile of yourself. When friends like someones profile picture, Facebook sees who he interacts with the most. This is data that would be valuable for advertisers. Same goes for when you like a brand, that brand can learn more a bout a potential customer and all her friends as well. When Ceili and her friends retweet things from the film, the movie studio was able to track the response in real time.  When Tyler goes on youtube to search for everything he likes, youtube(owned by google) can track his every move. This is where the currency of like turn into actually currency.

Companies know how to take that data and turn it into money. The people who are handing over the data because they're clicking the like button, they have no idea what the value of that is. So all those selfies you take so that people will like them on instagram they helped that company sell for a billion dollars. Send a tweet and you are automatically helping to raise the value of twitter to around 30 billion. Facebook is valued at around 140 billion dollars. All those numbers aren't based on profits, not yet anyway, they're based on the volume of likes they can generate , and likes don't generate themselves. Which is why companies need kids to stay online. But how do they do that? By giving kids a chance to be a part of the game. Fame by association. You may not be as famous as Taylor Swift, but your photo can be part in her commercial for diet coke. Reach out to any celebrity on social media and it is likely that they might reach back. Tyler Oakly is proof that this works, at least for the skilled liker. is success in this game of likes is reflected in his numbers, he has around 3 million subscribers to the youtube channel which he has created. He has covered Mtv's music awards on twitter, is a frequent guest on a pool culture show on youtube and he now even has quite a few fans of his own. Tyler claims that he is just like one of his fans, but he is not really. Beyond his massive following on youtube, Tyler has over 800,000 follower on Facebook, 1.3 million on instagram and 2 million on twitter. The numbers are rising every day. Tyler is a millionaire in the currency of likes.

However social media is all about sharing. When kids with large audiences work together everyone benefits. Here's how it works, Tyler does a video with Oli White introducing his large audience to Oli's smaller one. Old then goes and does more collars with other you tubers which also have more subscribers than him, that person then goes and does a collar with someone else which has even fewer subscribers. Eg Oli to louise, Louise to Hannah, Hannah to Shane. Shane (with 5 million subscribers) then shows up in a video with liam Horne. Liam isn't trying to be a youtube though, He is a relatively well known musician who is trying to make it big. To do so, he has turned to a new kind of company called The Audience. A talent agency, publisher, promotor and network rolled into 1. What the audience does is that they run the social media on behalf of entertainers and artists and musicians and actors, etc. In order to help them express themselves(the actors and musicians) inside this medium. It used to be that if a kid didn't have good connection they had to rely solely on talent and hard work in order to get to fame, and even that was no guarantee. Today there is another route, to build and leverage a social network. Liam has genuine talent, however that is almost beside the point. Therefore he has to attach himself to other which have mastered the game of likes. From the outside this does sound empowering, a bunch of kids working together to get ahead without having to rely on the usual corporate suspects. However that might not be true though as brands often use these youtube videos to their advantage too, to advertise their products in them and tie them to a person. Everybody seems to be getting what they want, however it is becoming harder and harder to stand out. All those little likes can turn into youtube gold for all these you tubers, also known as corporate sponsorship. However these companies might be giving these kids their products and even money however this means that they are literally making these you tubers into walking billboards. However to get more money and sponsorship these kids are trying to stand out more, (e.g. baby scumbag) as his videos get racier the more likes he gets. Young people want attention and validation, which is not new its just that the possible stage which you can operate on is much bigger. However at the same time the ability to get attention in a place where there is tonnes of information and tonnes of people competing for attention is also harder. When your business depends on the number f page views and add impressions what you really need from people is their attention, because its a way of actual capturing money as well.

Why on earth would someone spend all those hours on a youtube video of them doing something absolutely stupid and insane?
They would get a let of money from doing so, but money isn't the only currency anymore. However when someone recognises you as that kid who did something outrageous suddenly all else doesn't matter, because you know you're famous. Bu how much fame is enough? Does the quest for likes ever end? What happens if you finally go all the way? Not some sensation on the internet but a huge hollywood star? The kind of heights reached by Ian Somerhalder. Ian may be living every kids dreams, though he is still vulnerable to the numbers of likes. But his numbers are a little different to yours. However the content may be Ians but his company is running the show. Now there are companies which chart, follow and group the likes in real time and sell the access to this information to other companies so that they can follow the trends as well. Tracking the interactions between two companies or a company and a person could mean prized endorsements for the companys which sells the access to tis information's clients. So what people do now is (1) they get social media and (2) use it to promote their career so that they can (3) get to the point where they have a social media network which they sell. You become your own media company. Many companies now get other social media users to promote the company for them by making it seem like they're not doing it at all. However achieving that transparency takes a lot of work. It is all about openness because that openness creates what most brands want, which is trust.

The Merchants of cool - documentary

Reptilian Hot
Buttons

MERCHANTS OF COOL (2001)
Teenagers are corporate Americas 150 billion dollar dream. Teens have money and are willing to spend it therefore companies are more than willing to create a product which targets teens. Companies such as MTV, Maddison avenue and dream-makers of hollywood have all done so.They see teens as a continent which they are colonising (e.g. Africa). If companies fail to recognise their needs and wants they will be left behind. However what does this focus on teens do to the culture?

Companies will do whatever they think will work fastest and with the most people, meaning they will drag standards to the teenagers themselves. Corporate America is trying to find out teenager likes, wants, desires or in other words, what they wear, what they eat, how they spend their free time etc. Finding this information (or what's cool) is worth a lot of money. With 32 million teens, this is one of the biggest markets. Besides that, teens nowadays have more money and more say over how they will spend it that ever before, mainly because their parents are wanting to please their kids more an more now.

Teens are now (2001) growing up in a world full of marketing. A single American teen will process around 3000 discrete adverts in a day, or 10 million by the time they're 18. 75% of teens have a television in their room and 33% have their own computer. They spend an average of 2 hours online per day. There is a blizzard of brands, all competing for the same kids, therefore companies study them in depth in order to be able to create a product or service which targets them best. Teens don't operate like the rest of us, they're stubborn and don't respond the the classical marketing messages. However they do respond to 'cool'.  However cool keeps changing, making it hard to map it.  The search of what is cool has its own name -> cool hunting. Many companies don't trust themselves with cool hunting as they feel unable to do so, hence they hire experts to pin point these patter (of cool) early on.  These experts look for kids which are ahead of the pack as they will influence what everyone else does. These kids are called the trans-setters (they are the 20%), they influence the other 80% of the kids. Known cool hunters such as Gordon (founder of LookLook) have put together a team of young insightful people, all former teens themselves. They are culture spies, they penetrate the teen market where corporations aren't welcome. A correspondent is a person who has been trained to find transmitters, the teens which catch on to trends early on. These are the teens which are froward thinkers and look for inspiration past their back yard. The leaders within their own group. These kids are very difficult to find. These correspondents find these kids, get them interested in what they do, interview them and find out about their wants. All of which they post on their website (look-look) and then sell the access code (costing 20,000 per year) to other companies).  These kids are important because they catch on to trends which are still underground and are the first ones to bring it into the market.  The consumer then picks it up, runs with it and then eventually kills it. That is the paradox of cool hunting. It kills what it finds. Something is cool until it is found and over-used. Once it is everywhere, it looses its cool. As soon as marketers discover cool, it stops being cool. As soon as you pick up on these trends and reveal them to corporate america the more you force the founders to move on to something else.  There is no solution to this, its an ever-going process.

This creates a problem to marketers, they are seen as the enemy. Hence they market to kids without seeming to do so. They try to become cool themselves, like sprite did a few years ago. What sprite found out when talking to teens is that they have seen so much advertising that they were on overload. Hence they became very cynical of the traditional approach to advertising. Therefore Sprite issued a campaign where in their adverts they were making fun of advertising themselves. These adverts were implying that the audience (the teens) were smarter than the adverts and appeared to be on their side. However after a while kids grew sceptical and grew against this non marketing, marketing campaign. So sprite moved onto genuine cool. Focussed on hiphop, which became a way to talk to teens and gain access to their world. They weren't selling the product, they were selling the fact that they understood the culture, the lifestyle.  Whereas other companies focus on under the radar marketing. They ask kids to post on blogs and online as just another fan of their company or service. The also ask freshmen to throw parties which they would sponsor and get the kids to hand out their products. These companies helped sprite to find these kids and smuggle their message into their market. Sprite and hiphop thereafter became one and the same, each carrying the other to its audience. Sprite wasn't just associated with hiphop anymore, it was a part of it.

Is it weird to look back and ask whether the thing we called youth culture wasn't just something that was being sold to us but that it was something that came from us. An act of expression rather than consumption. Today (2001) 5 companies are responsible for selling nearly all of the youths culture (these are the true merchants of cool): News corporation, Disney, Viacom, Universal vivendi and Time warner. These large entertainment companies sell 90% of americas music and own almost all of the TV channels. They are looking to take over the teen market and their weaponry is clothing, amusement parks, sports teams etc etc etc. Of these 5, the coolest one is Viacom, and their most prized possession-> MTV. In 2000 it earned 1 billion dollars in profits. Itv, created 20 years ago, with a simple but effective commercial concept. To use record companies commercial music videos as creative programming. Since then the cable marketing channel has grown into a youth marketing empire. Everything on MTV now, is a commercial. This strategy keeps MTV's airwaves filled with cheap and easy content. Eg. sprites hiphop party was broadcasted on MTV.  Sprite rents an arena and pays 50 bucks per kid, to fill it up and look cool whereas the rappers and dancers get a direct plug on MTV's show, for which sprite is a sponsor. MTV gobbles up the cheap programming, promoting the music of the record companies who advertise on their channel.  However while this cross promotional free for all might maximise profits for MTV and Viacom it also violates the first rule of cool; don't let your marketing show. Therefore MTV learned this a few years ago when their rating began to fall. Mtv realised that they would have to change along with kids to remain cool.  They decided to make a better connection with the teens and what they want, in order to create a better MTV. The new itv is learning about what kids want and delivering it to them. MTV started playing the top 10 artists and invited them ver for guest appearances, or in other words handed over what was on their channel to the audience. To ensure Mtv stays strong, they must know where teen culture is moving. Mtv researchers went out to visit kids and their biggest fans in order to study them in the hope of understanding their demographic.  All this research isn't focussing on the kid as a person but as a customer. Miv's corporate revenues depend on being ahead of the curve. Corporations such as itv have to find out what the customer is thinking to be able to give them what they want. Itv doesn't listen to the young so it can make them happier, it listens to the young to figure out how it can pitch what Viacom has to sell. What is happening in the industry now is that there are fewer owners but more an more choices. So the companies have to desperately find ways to keep people, they also don't have a huge time frame to establish an identity. This puts pressure on channels like Mtv, to develop something which the audience will recognise right away and stay there to watch it (instead of changing the channel). When you have a few huge TNC's all loaded with debt, competing madly for brain space, they are going to do and take what they believe works the fastest and with the most people.

Media has now created two characters, one appealing mainly to the boys, called the Mook, and one to the girls , called the midriff. The Mook is arrested in adolescence whereas the Midriff is prematurely adult. He doesn't care what people think of him, and she is consumed by appearances. The midriff is just a collection of the same old sexual cliche's, re-packages as a new female empowerment. Britney Spears is a good example of a midriff. At the VMA's in 2000 she pretty much stripped naked, not only pleasing the boys but delivering a powerful message to the girls-> your body is your best asset. This is the message that matters the most as Britney's fans are mostly teenage girls.

Wednesday 10th of February

Media (search engine)

The feedback loop- is when a search engine keeps track of what you do/search/watch and then gives it back to you when you search something. Making it more likely to be something new which you would like to watch.

Feedback loop= information(entertainment)-> search-> information-> information

More and more information on the internet comes in the form of entertainment.  Hence almost all of it comes in the form of advertisement. When searching in google it gives you titles which A- attract attention and the text under it I- develops interest as well as develops Desire (D). Whereas clicking on the link is the call to action (A).

Saying something is common sense- means someone is telling you to think like them

The American president can try to do whatever to convince the audience however it can be hard with the large variety of views. 

There is the Executive- The president( if the executive is in control of the judiciary it is almost never a free country)

The Legislative- The people that make the decision and laws (are elected by the public) e.g. the sennet and the representatives 

The judicial- The supreme court (what makes a country truly free is an independent judiciary) These smart people decide what does not get done (they decide upon the restrictions).

Matin Luther King- I have a dream Analysis

How does Martin Luther King inspire his audience with his 'I Have a Dream' speech?

Throughout his speech, Martin Luther King captivates his audience, in order to persuade them, by using a range of literary techniques. I will focus on his use of metaphors, hyperboles and the placement of juxtaposition within I Have a Dream and review the effects they provoke amongst the audience.

Martin Luther King uses hyperbole numerous times within his speech. His use of hyperbole serves to motivate his audience and all of Americas black population to fight for their rights. He includes definite articles and strong, confident statements which serve the same point. “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low.” This is a good example of a hyperbole as MLK takes the idea that all black and white men living in peace will affect all valleys and hills as well. He applies the positive factors of equality to all other problems one might face. In other words he is stating that civil rights  amongst the coloured population will clear all other complications in life and hence makes the act of equality the more powerful. This amplifies the advantages of acting now and motivates the audience to do so exactly. Besides the hyperbole MLK also uses definite articles  such as “there will”, “must not” and “is not”. These contribute to the hyperbole as they prevent doubt from arising amongst the audience and gives them a single option only, one of success. Which motivates the audience further.

Besides hyperboles Martin Luther King incorporates numerous extremely powerful metaphors which point the audience in a wanted direction, helping them compare aspects of the speech to create a vivid picture in their mind, making the speech more powerful. Upon describing the situation in which the black population is in MLK strategically creates a link back to slavery. “manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” His use of diction and inclusion of ‘manacles’ and ‘chains’ paints a clear imagine of the torture slaves went through a couple years back. Which only fuels the fury within the minds of the black population and makes it the more likely for them to act upon the problem of freedom. “we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.” MLK refers to the misjudged decisions taken by the government as a bank of justice. Which is, again, a very powerful metaphor as it portrays the picture of debt owed to the black population and retrieves the fury that tags along with someone owing you.  However with that MLK claims that the bank is not yet empty, which leads his audience to believe something will be given back to them as long as they act upon it, this sparks motivation. 

Lastly I will look at the way Martin Luther King incorporates juxtaposition into his speech in order to attract the audiences attention and evoke their concern. Already at the start of his speech MLK introduces juxtaposition to make sure everyone is present and listening. “joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.”  He uses this juxtaposition when describing the effects of signing the Emancipation Proclamation. The juxtaposition portrays the signing of this agreement as the saviour which brought freedom to all of todays’ population of colour. He does so by comparing it to the horrible days which people of colour spent working as slaves. However with the use of past tense and the fact that everyone that was assembled in front of MLK was there in order of justice, they knew that the Emancipation Proclamation did not do much. As black people were still restricted of many human rights. Therefore this juxtaposition aims to give the audience a heads up as they know that MLK will argue about the lack of change the signing of this agreement gave the black population. Hence this juxtaposition actually leads to the situation of the black population at the time this speech was given, adopting the qualities of the time that black people were still slaves.

Rhetorical Devices, propaganda tools

Pathos Logos and Ethos are the large rhetorical groups.

Specific Rhetorical Devices (used to persuade)
-> alliteration
-> listing
-> repetition
-> analogy
-> hyperbole
-> understatement
-> figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia,symbol)
-> parallelism
-> irony
-> naming
-> allusion (classical and christian)
-> comparison
-> contrast
-> juxtaposition
-> litotes- (understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary (as in “not a bad singer” or “not unhappy”))

Propaganda tools
-> bandwagon
-> glaring generalities
-> exaggeration
-> transference
-> fear & desire
-> testimonial

Ad hominem

A Latin phrase that has come to mean attacking one's opponent, as opposed to attacking their arguments.

Ad nauseam

This argument approach uses tireless repetition of an idea. An idea, especially a simple slogan, that is repeated enough times, may begin to be taken as the truth. This approach is more effective alongside the propagandist limiting or controlling the media.

Appeal to authority

Appeals to authority cite prominent figures to support a position, idea, argument, or course of action.

Appeal to fear

Appeals to fear seek to build support by instilling anxieties and panic in the general population, for example, Joseph Goebbels exploited Theodore Kaufman's Germany Must Perish! to claim that the Allies sought the extermination of the German people.

Appeal to prejudice

Using loaded or emotive terms to attach value or moral goodness to believing the proposition.

Bandwagon

Bandwagon and "inevitable-victory" appeals attempt to persuade the target audience to join in and take the course of action that "everyone else is taking."

• Inevitable victory: invites those not already on the bandwagon to join those already on the road to certain victory. Those already or at least partially on the bandwagon are reassured that staying aboard is their best course of action. (e.g., "The debate is over. Nearly everyone who matters agrees with me..")
• Join the crowd: This technique reinforces people's natural desire to be on the winning side. This technique is used to convince the audience that a program is an expression of an irresistible mass movement and that it is in their best interest to join.

Beautiful people

The type of propaganda that deals with famous people or depicts attractive, happy people. This suggests if people buy a product or follow a certain ideology, they too will be happy or successful. (This is used more in advertising for products, instead of political reasons.)

Big Lie

The repeated articulation of a complex of events that justify subsequent action. The descriptions of these events have elements of truth, and the "big lie" generalizations merge and eventually supplant the public's accurate perception of the underlying events. After World War I the German stab in the back explanation of the cause of their defeat became a justification for Nazi re-militarization and revanchist aggression.

Black-and-white fallacy

Presenting only two choices, with the product or idea being propagated as the better choice. (e.g., "You're either with us, or against us....")

Cherry picking (fallacy) or Selective truth

Richard Crossman, the British Deputy Director of Psychological Warfare Division (PWD) for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) during the Second World War said "In propaganda truth pays... It is a complete delusion to think of the brilliant propagandist as being a professional liar. The brilliant propagandist is the man who tells the truth, or that selection of the truth which is requisite for his purpose, and tells it in such a way that the recipient does not think he is receiving any propaganda... [...] The art of propaganda is not telling lies, but rather selecting the truth you require and giving it mixed up with some truths the audience wants to hear."^[3]

Classical conditioning

All vertebrates, including humans, respond to classical conditioning. That is, if A is always present when B is present and B causes a physical reaction (e.g. disgust, pleasure), then when presented with object A in the absence of B, that same reaction will be experienced.

Cognitive dissonance

People desire to be consistent. Suppose a pollster finds that a certain group of people hates his candidate for senator but loves actor A. They use actor A's endorsement of their candidate to change people's minds because people cannot tolerate inconsistency. They are forced to either dislike the actor or like the candidate.

Common man

The "plain folks" or "common man" approach attempts to convince the audience that the propagandist's positions reflect the common sense of the people. It is designed to win the confidence of the audience by communicating in the common manner and style of the target audience. Propagandists use ordinary language and mannerisms (and clothe their message in face-to-face and audiovisual communications) in attempting to identify their point of view with that of the average person. A common example of this type of propaganda is a political figure, usually running for a placement, in a backyard or shop doing daily routine things. This image appeals to the common person. With the plain folks device, the propagandist can win the confidence of persons who resent or distrust foreign sounding, intellectual speech, words, or mannerisms."^[4] For example, a politician speaking to a Southern United States crowd might incorporate words such as "Y'all" and other colloquialisms to create a perception of belonging.

Cult of personality

A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. The hero personality then advocates the positions that the propagandist desires to promote. For example, modern propagandists hire popular personalities to promote their ideas and/or products.

Demonizing the enemy

Making individuals from the opposing nation, from a different ethnic group, or those who support the opposing viewpoint appear to be subhuman (e.g., the Vietnam War-era term "gooks" for National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam aka Vietcong, or “VC”, soldiers), worthless, or immoral, through suggestion or false accusations. Dehumanizing is also a termed used synonymously with demonizing, the latter usually serves as an aspect of the former.

Dictat

This technique hopes to simplify the decision making process by using images and words to tell the audience exactly what actions to take, eliminating any other possible choices. Authority figures can be used to give the order, overlapping it with the appeal to authority technique, but not necessarily. The Uncle Sam "I want you" image is an example of this technique.

Disinformation

The creation or deletion of information from public records, in the purpose of making a false record of an event or the actions of a person or organization, including outright forgery of photographs, motion pictures, broadcasts, and sound recordings as well as printed documents.

Door-in-the-face technique

Is used to increase a person's latitude of acceptance. For example, if a salesperson wants to sell an item for $100 but the public is only willing to pay $50, the salesperson first offers the item at a higher price (e.g., $200) and subsequently reduces the price to $100 to make it seem like a good deal.

Euphemism

A euphemism is a generally innocuous word or expression used in place of one that may be found offensive or suggest something unpleasant.

Euphoria

The use of an event that generates euphoria or happiness, or using an appealing event to boost morale. Euphoria can be created by declaring a holiday, making luxury items available, or mounting a military parade with marching bands and patriotic messages.

Exaggeration

An exaggeration (or hyperbole) occurs when the most fundamental aspects of a statement are true, but only to a certain degree. It is also seen as "stretching the truth" or making something appear more powerful, meaningful, or real than it actually is. Saying that a person ate 20 spring rolls at a party when they actually ate 7 or 8 would be considered an exaggeration.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt

An attempt to influence public perception by disseminating negative and dubious/false information designed to undermine the credibility of their beliefs.

Flag-waving

An attempt to justify an action on the grounds that doing so will make one more patriotic, or in some way benefit a group, country, or idea. The feeling of patriotism this technique attempts to inspire may not necessarily diminish or entirely omit one's capability for rational examination of the matter in question.

Foot-in-the-door technique

Often used by recruiters and salesmen. For example, a member of the opposite sex walks up to the victim and pins a flower or gives a small gift to the victim. The victim says thanks and now they have incurred a psychological debt to the perpetrator. The person eventually asks for a larger favor (e.g., a donation or to buy something far more expensive). The unwritten social contract between the victim and perpetrator causes the victim to feel obligated to reciprocate by agreeing to do the larger favor or buy the more expensive gift.

Framing (social sciences)

Framing is the social construction of a social phenomenon often by mass media sources, political or social movements, political leaders, or other actors and organizations. It is an inevitable process of selective influence over the individual's perception of the meanings attributed to words or phrases.

Gish Gallop

Bombarding a political opponent with obnoxiously complex questions in rapid fire during a debate to make the opponent appear to not know what they are talking about.

Glittering generalities

Glittering generalities are emotionally appealing words that are applied to a product or idea, but present no concrete argument or analysis. This technique has also been referred to as the PT Barnum effect. (e.g., the advertising campaign slogan "Ford has a better idea!")

Guilt by association or Reductio ad Hitlerum

This technique is used to persuade a target audience to disapprove of an action or idea by suggesting that the idea is popular with groups hated, feared, or held in contempt by the target audience. Thus if a group that supports a certain policy is led to believe that undesirable, subversive, or contemptible people support the same policy, then the members of the group may decide to change their original position. This is a form of bad logic, where A is said to include X, and B is said to include X, therefore, A = B.

Half-truth

A half-truth is a deceptive statement that includes some element of truth. It comes in several forms: the statement might be partly true, the statement may be totally true but only part of the whole truth, or it may utilize some deceptive element, such as improper punctuation, or double meaning, especially if the intent is to deceive, evade, blame, or misrepresent the truth.

Intentional vagueness

Generalities are deliberately vague so that the audience may supply its own interpretations. The intention is to move the audience by use of undefined phrases, without analyzing their validity or attempting to determine their reasonableness or application. The intent is to cause people to draw their own interpretations rather than simply being presented with an explicit idea. In trying to "figure out" the propaganda, the audience forgoes judgment of the ideas presented. Their validity, reasonableness and application may still be considered.

Labeling

A euphemism is used when the propagandist attempts to increase the perceived quality, credibility, or credence of a particular ideal. A dysphemism is used when the intent of the propagandist is to discredit, diminish the perceived quality, or hurt the perceived righteousness of the individual. By creating a “label”, “category”, or “faction” of a population, it is much easier to make an example of these larger bodies, because they can uplift or defame the individual without actually incurring legal-defamation. Labeling can be thought of as a sub-set of guilt by association, another logical fallacy.^[5]

Latitudes of acceptance

If a person's message is outside the bounds of acceptance for an individual and group, most techniques will engender psychological reactance (simply hearing the argument will make the message even less acceptable). There are two techniques for increasing the bounds of acceptance. First, one can take a more even extreme position that will make more moderate positions seem more acceptable. This is similar to the door-in-the-face technique. Alternatively, one can moderate one's own position to the edge of the latitude of acceptance and then over time slowly move to the position that was previously.^[6]

Loaded language

Specific words and phrases with strong emotional implications are used to influence the audience, for example, using the word reforms rather than a more neutral word like changes.

Love bombing

See also: Milieu control

Used to recruit members to a cult or ideology by having a group of individuals cut off a person from their existing social support and replace it entirely with members of the group who deliberately bombard the person with affection in an attempt to isolate the person from their prior beliefs and value system.

Lying and deception

Lying and deception can be the basis of many propaganda techniques including Ad Homimen arguments, Big-Lie, Defamation, Door-in-the-Face, Half-truth, Name-calling or any other technique that is based on dishonesty or deception. For example, many politicians have been found to frequently stretch or break the truth.

Managing the news

According to Adolf Hitler, "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."^[7][8] This idea is consistent with the principle of classical conditioning as well as the idea of "Staying on Message."

Milieu control

An attempt to control the social environment and ideas through the use of social pressure

Minimisation

Minimization is the opposite of exaggeration. It is a type of deception^[9] involving denial coupled with rationalization in situations where complete denial is implausible.

Name-calling

Propagandists use the name-calling technique to incite fears and arouse prejudices in their hearers in the intent that the bad names will cause hearers to construct a negative opinion about a group or set of beliefs or ideas that the propagandist wants hearers to denounce. The method is intended to provoke conclusions about a matter apart from impartial examinations of facts. Name-calling is thus a substitute for rational, fact-based arguments against an idea or belief on its own merits.

Non sequitur

A type of logical fallacy, in which a conclusion is made out of an argument that does not justify it. All invalid arguments can be considered as special cases of non sequitur.

Obfuscation, intentional vagueness, confusion

Generalities are deliberately vague so that the audience may supply its own interpretations. The intention is to move the audience by use of undefined phrases, without analyzing their validity or attempting to determine their reasonableness or application. The intent is to cause people to draw their own interpretations rather than simply being presented with an explicit idea. In trying to "figure out" the propaganda, the audience forgoes judgment of the ideas presented. Their validity, reasonableness and application may still be considered.

Operant conditioning

Operant conditioning involves learning through imitation. For example, watching an appealing person buy products or endorse positions teaches a person to buy the product or endorse the position. Operant conditioning is the underlying principle behind the ad nauseam, slogan and other repetition public relations campaigns.

Oversimplification

Favorable generalities are used to provide simple answers to complex social, political, economic, or military problems.

Pensée unique

Enforced reduction of discussion by use of overly simplistic phrases or arguments (e.g., "There is no alternative to war.")

Quotes out of context

Selective editing of quotes that can change meanings. Political documentaries designed to discredit an opponent or an opposing political viewpoint often use this technique.

Rationalization

Individuals or groups may use favorable generalities to rationalize questionable acts or beliefs. Vague and pleasant phrases are often used to justify such actions or beliefs.

Red herring

Presenting data or issues that, while compelling, are irrelevant to the argument at hand, and then claiming that it validates the argument.^[5]

Repetition

This is the repeating of a certain symbol or slogan so that the audience remembers it. This could be in the form of a jingle or an image placed on nearly everything in the picture/scene. This also includes using subliminal phrases, images or other content in a piece of propaganda.^[5]

Scapegoating

Assigning blame to an individual or group, thus alleviating feelings of guilt from responsible parties and/or distracting attention from the need to fix the problem for which blame is being assigned.

Slogans

A slogan is a brief, striking phrase that may include labeling and stereotyping. Although slogans may be enlisted to support reasoned ideas, in practice they tend to act only as emotional appeals. Opponents of the US's invasion and occupation of Iraq use the slogan "blood for oil" to suggest that the invasion and its human losses was done to access Iraq's oil riches. On the other hand, supporters who argue that the US should continue to fight in Iraq use the slogan "cut and run" to suggest withdrawal is cowardly or weak. Similarly, the names of the military campaigns, such as "enduring freedom" or "just cause" can also be considered slogans, devised to influence people.

Stereotyping, name calling or labeling

This technique attempts to arouse prejudices in an audience by labeling the object of the propaganda campaign as something the target audience fears, hates, loathes, or finds undesirable. For instance, reporting on a foreign country or social group may focus on the stereotypical traits that the reader expects, even though they are far from being representative of the whole country or group; such reporting often focuses on the anecdotal. In graphic propaganda, including war posters, this might include portraying enemies with stereotyped racial features.

Straw man

A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by substituting a superficially similar proposition (the "straw man"), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.

Testimonial

See also: Damaging quotation

Testimonials are quotations, in or out of context, especially cited to support or reject a given policy, action, program, or personality. The reputation or the role (expert, respected public figure, etc.) of the individual giving the statement is exploited. The testimonial places the official sanction of a respected person or authority on a propaganda message. This is done in an effort to cause the target audience to identify itself with the authority or to accept the authority's opinions and beliefs as its own.

Third party technique

See also: Soft power

Works on the principle that people are more willing to accept an argument from a seemingly independent source of information than from someone with a stake in the outcome. It is a marketing strategy commonly employed by Public Relations (PR) firms, that involves placing a premeditated message in the "mouth of the media." The third party technique can take many forms, ranging from the hiring of journalists to report the organization in a favorable light, to using scientists within the organization to present their perhaps prejudicial findings to the public. Frequently, astroturf groups or front groups are used to deliver the message.

Thought-terminating cliché

A commonly used phrase, sometimes passing as folk wisdom, used to quell cognitive dissonance.

Transfer

Also known as association, this is a technique of projecting positive or negative qualities (praise or blame) of a person, entity, object, or value onto another to make the second more acceptable or to discredit it. It evokes an emotional response, which stimulates the target to identify with recognized authorities. Often highly visual, this technique often utilizes symbols (for example, the swastikas used in Nazi Germany, originally a symbol for health and prosperity) superimposed over other visual images.

Unstated assumption

This technique is used when the propaganda concept would seem less credible if explicitly stated. The concept is instead repeatedly assumed or implied.

Virtue words

See also: Transfer (propaganda)

These are words in the value system of the target audience that produce a positive image when attached to a person or issue. Peace, hope, happiness, security, wise leadership, freedom, "The Truth", etc. are virtue words. Many see religiosity as a virtue, making associations to this quality effectively beneficial.

The power of the Nightmares

Politics over time has moved from offering dreams into promising to protect us from nightmares (promises to protect us from the dangers which we cannot see nor understand). E.g international terrorism.However a big aspect of these so called threats/nightmares have been amplified or distorted by the government.

This documentary talks about how and why these nightmares were created and who and how the benefit. (looking at american Neo-conservatives and the Islams)

The Neo conservatives set the vision of America being a country which set out to struggle against evil throughout the world.
The Neo conservatives of america set out to make an alliance with Afghanistan offering large sums of money and numbers of weapons to go against the Russian troops. At the same time, Arabs joined which were by their religious leader told that they must free the muslim lands from the Soviet invaders.

However Abula Azham was looking to persuade the muslim people in Afghanistan to reject the corrupt autocratic regimes by supporting them during the fight against the soviets.
1985 a new force began to arrive in Afghanistan-> the extreme radical islam who were being expelled from prisons in the Arab world.

The guardian- David Cameron says migrants trying to 'break in' to UK illegally

This article issued by the guardian focusses on David Cameron's speech regarding the worrying situation in the French port.

The article quotes UK's  prime minister upon trying to explain himself for his use of the word "swarm" to describe the numbers of immigrants entering the UK. By quoting him, the writer expresses his disagreement with the prime  ministers thoughts as well as pointing out the flaws within the numerous speeches he gave. For example once being asked whether the UK welcomes a fair number of people seeking asylum, Cameron avoids answering the question by diverting the audiences attention with the use of Red Herring. Instead of stating figures he simply claims that the UK, during the previous 25 years, has been amongst the most generous countries. After stating that he yet again diverts the audiences attention back to the main aim of his speech which is convincing others that the UK cannot allow migrants to 'break in' to their country.