[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #66 MEDIA MANIPULATION

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #66

October 4, 2021

 

MEDIA MANIPULATION

 

The book that took the longest to write was Inside-Out Persuasion.
Originally I planned it to be the second book in the Meta-Coaching series.
I planned that because, if a coach is effective at anything, it has to be in
influencing in setting goals and establishing an inspiration purpose and
then persuading the client to persist in the activities that are required to
succeed.  I researched the field of persuasion, I even wrote more than a
dozen chapters, then I got stuck.

 

I got stuck at a barrier-a barrier which to this day still exists in 99% of
the works on persuasion.  The name of that barrier is manipulation.  Back in
2003-4, I had the heuristic and techniques that would enable one person to
influence another, but I did not have a robust human ethical framework to
put it in-a framework that would eliminate manipulation.  So I waited. I
waited nearly 15 years until I eventually found a framework- suggested by
the title of the book, Inside-Out Persuasion (2017).

 

Now in terms of an anti-manipulation set of tools, there's no better place
to start than the NLP Meta-Model.  Built originally from therapists helping
clients get their heads on straight about the internal mental maps they had
built about the world, themselves, others, work, life, etc., the Meta-Model
distinctions point out problems in the mapping and questions to ask to
straighten the problems out.  Using the Meta-Model, manipulation inevitably
occurs 1) when someone deletes key information and doesn't provide a fully
picture for "the whole truth.  2) When someone over-generalizes information
so that it is too broad, too general, and one-sided.  3) When someone
distorts the information, twisting it round, taking it out of context,
changing words, etc.

 

This is also what the media does.  Now that the media manipulates is not
news.  What is news is the extent of that manipulation and the many
different forms that the manipulation takes.  It's not a matter of if the
media manipulates, or when, but how.  How does the media manipulate us and
what can we do about it?  Let's use the three aspects of the Meta-Model to
examine how the media does it's thing.  

 

A good example of over-generalization occurred last week.  Just when 15,000
people had crossed the southern border and were camping under a bridge, some
of the border patrol agents on horseback were video-taped trying to stop a
horde of people from entering the US illegally.  As they steered their
horses back and forth, several used the reins to direct the horse to go this
way and then that way.  Nothing abnormal about any of that.  But the way the
news media picked it up, they changed "reins" to "whips" (!) and then evoked
references to 50 years ago to instances where minorities were indeed whipped
by police.  That gave a completely false impression about what was occurring
and sough to create an automatic emotional response of "How terrible!"

 

Of course, anyone who knows anything about horses and how you control a
horse so it goes where you want it to, knows about reins and how to use
them.  They are not whips!  You use the reins of a horse like you use the
steering wheel in a car to drive it.  It's completely manipulative to
over-generalize in this way, distorting the word "reins" and not on the
illegality of the people but on the cruelty of the border patrol agents.  On
that day, no one was hit, no one hurt, no one whipped.  But you would not
know that from how the media presented it.

 

An example of deleting and simply not making critical information available
occurred the weeks before the election in 2020.  Hunter Biden's laptop had
just been found and lots of damning evidence was being reported from it.
But the mainline media never said a word.  They went on with other news and
never even mentioned it.  Three months later, polling indicated that 13% of
those who voted for Biden, and who had read or seen the information about
Hunter, said that they would not have voted as they did if they had known
that information.  The media manipulated by deleting critical information.

 

An example of distorting information has occurred this week in Durham's
investigations into the Russian collusion.  The story that the media
reported on for years has turned out to be a non-story about Trump and a
disturbing story about the Clinton campaign.  The only collusion occurred by
the Clinton camp in what they were doing.  Indictments are now being handed
down about that and probably, more will be coming.  But, of course, it is
some four years late.

 

How can you and I handle all of the manipulations by the media?

              1) Expect it.  

2) Skeptically look for it.  Don't react to the first report.  Because a
great many news stories are eventually retracted, hold off on coming to a
definite conclusion too soon.  And even when you do, be ready to change your
mind.  A good bit of it may eventually prove to be media generated to sell
papers and increase viewers.

3) Challenge stories using the Meta-Model questions.  That will help to
flush out the real facts.

4) Use the lists of cognitive distortions, fallacies, and biases to check
out information.

 

 

 

Resources for understanding and dealing with media manipulation

              Communication Magic (2001) for the extended Meta-Model.

              Inside-Out Persuasion (2017) for persuading without
manipulating.

 

 

To share on social media:

www.neurosemantics.com/media-manipulation-how-to-manage-it/ 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

132607 NeuroSemantics Executive Learning Front Cover

 

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