Media manipulation refers to orchestrated campaigns in which actors exploit the distinctive features of broadcastingmass communications ordigital media platforms to mislead,misinform, or create a narrative that advances their interests and agendas.[1][2][3]
In practice, media manipulation tactics may include the use ofrhetorical strategies, includinglogical fallacies, deceptive content likedisinformation, andpropaganda techniques, and often involve thesuppression of information or points of view by crowding them out, by inducing other people or groups of people to stop listening to certain arguments, or by simply divertingattention elsewhere. InPropaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes,Jacques Ellul writes thatpublic opinion can only express itself through channels which are provided by themass media of communication, without which there could be no propaganda.[4]
Activism is the practice or doctrine that has an emphasis on direct vigorous action especially supporting or opposing one side of a controversial matter.[5] It is quite simply starting a movement to affect or change social views. It is frequently started by influential individuals but is done collectively throughsocial movements with large masses. These social movements can be done through publicrallies,strikes, street marches, andsocial media.[6]
Advertising is a form of promotion that seeks to persuade a specific audience to purchase a good or service. As one of the first types of marketing, it aims to influence its target market to either buy, sell, or carry out a particular action.[7]
These advertisements are not only done by businesses but can also be done by other groups. Non-commercial advertisers are those who spend money on advertising in the hope of raising awareness for a cause or promoting specific ideas.[8]
A hoax is something intended to deceive or defraud. Misleading public stunts,scientific frauds, falsebomb threats and businessscams are examples of hoaxes.[9]
Propagandizing is a form of communication that is aimed atinfluencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position by presenting only one side of an argument.Propaganda is commonly created by governments, but some forms ofmass communication created by other influential organizations can be considered propaganda. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the desired result in audience attitudes. While the term propaganda has justifiably acquired a strongly negative connotation by association with its most manipulative andjingoistic examples (e.g.Nazi propaganda used to justify theHolocaust), propaganda in its original sense was neutral, and could refer to uses that were generally benign or innocuous, such as public health recommendations, signs encouraging citizens to participate in a census or election, or messages encouraging persons to report crimes to the police, among others.[10]
Propaganda uses societal norms and myths that people hear and believe. Because people respond to, understand and remember more simple ideas, this is what is used to influence people's beliefs, attitudes and values.[11]
Psychological warfare is a term used to denote actions taken by governments with the aim evoking a planned psychological reaction in other people.[12]
This tactic has been used in multiple wars throughout history. DuringWorld War II, thewestern Allies, expected that theSoviet Union would drop leaflets on the US and England. During the conflict withIraq, American and English forces dropped leaflets, with many of the leaflets telling the people how to surrender. In theKorean War both sides would useloud speakers from the front lines.[13] In 2009 people inIsrael in theGaza war received text messages on theircell phones threatening them with rocket attacks. ThePalestinian people were getting phone calls and leaflets warning them that they were going to drop rockets on them. These phone calls and leaflets were not always accurate.[14]
Public relations (PR) is the management of the flow ofinformation between an individual or anorganization and thepublic.[15]
Means of influence include, but are not limited to, the methods outlined inInfluence: Science and Practice, which include appealing to authority and making the person aware of the scarcity of an offer.[16]
Astroturfing is when there is an intent and attempt to create the illusion of support for a particular cause, person, or stance. While this is mainly connected to and seen on the internet, it has also happened in newspapers during times of political elections.[17] Corporations and political parties try to imitate grassroots movements in order to sway the public into believing something that is not true.[18]
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Clickbait refers to headlines of online news articles that aresensationalized or sometimes whollyfake. It uses people's natural curiosity to get people to click. In some cases, clickbait is used to generate income; more clicks mean more money is made with advertisers.[19] But these headlines and articles can also be used to influence a group of people onsocial media. In some cases, they are constructed to appeal to the interest group'spre-existing biases and thus to be shared withinfilter bubbles.[20]
Information laundering is a method of using a less trusted or less popular platform to publish a story of dubious origin or veracity for the purposes of reporting on that report rather than the story itself. This technique serves to insulate the secondary, more established media from having to issue a retraction if the report is false. Generally, secondary reports will report that the original report is reporting without verifying or making the report themselves.[21]
In search engine marketing,websites usemarket research from past searches and other sources to increase their visibility insearch engine results pages. This allows them to guide search results along the lines they desire, thereby influencing searchers.[22]
Businesses have many tactics to entice customers to their websites to generate revenue, such asbanner ads,search engine optimization andpay-per-click marketing tools. They all serve different purposes and use different tools that appeal to multiple types of users. Banner ads appear on sites in an attempt to attract visitors to a linked website. Search engine optimization is a technique in which a website is optimized to receive a higher ranking from the search engine, causing it to be returned more often in searches.[23][24]
Commonly known as "smoke screen", this technique consists of making the public focus its attention on a topic that is more convenient for the propagandist. This particular type of media manipulation has been referenced in popular culture. For example, the movieWag the Dog (1997) illustrates how the public can be deceitfully distracted from an important topic by presenting another whose only quality is that of being more attractive.
Politicians might distract the public from domestic issues by diverting attention to global issues in order to reduce pressure domestically.[25]
This is a variation of the traditional arguments known inlogic asad hominem andad populum, but applied to countries instead of individuals. This technique consists of refuting arguments by appealing to nationalism or by inspiring fear and hate toward a foreign country or all foreigners. It has the potential to be important since it gives the propagandists the power to discredit any information coming from other countries.[26]
Aninformal fallacy. The "straw man" consists of appearing to refute the opponent's argument while attacking another topic. For it to work correctly, the topic that was refuted and the one that should have been refuted need to be similar.
Voice replication is an artificially generated audio created byartificial intelligence (AI) to create a realistic replication of someone's voice. AI uses machine learning models and can replicate the specific characteristics of a target voice, such as pitch, tone, and cadence. It is commonly used to deceive and cause disruption.[27]
Visual media can betransformed through photo manipulation, commonly called "photoshopping." This can make a product, person, or idea seem more appealing. Specific product features are highlighted to attract and persuade the public, and specific editing tools are used to enhance the photo. Some techniques include cropping, resizing, airbrushing, color-enhancing, and removing or adding subjects from the original image. The motivation for photo manipulation may be for pure artistic creativity or more nefarious reasons to deceive. Photo manipulation is used extensively in the advertising and fashion industry and has been the subject of controversy for its part in false advertising and promoting unrealistic images of beauty.[28]
Video manipulation is a variant of media manipulation that targetsdigital video using a combination of traditionalvideo processing andvideo editing techniques and auxiliary methods from artificial intelligence likeface recognition. In typical video manipulation, the facial structure, body movements, and voice of the subject are replicated in order to create a fabricated recording of the subject. The applications of these methods range from educational videos to videos aimed at (mass) manipulation andpropaganda, a straightforward extension of the long-standing possibilities ofphoto manipulation. This form of computer-generated misinformation has contributed tofake news, and there have been instances when this technology was used during political campaigns in an attempt to influence the outcome.[29]
Overviews
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