Companies Game Their Glassdoor Ratings
Glassdoor is a web site where workers write reviews of their employer and work environment. Not surprisingly, many companies are gaming the system, flooding it with 5-star reviews.
Media influences your thinking merely by choosing which stories to run
435 Congressional Representatives were elected last November. How many can you name? Probably not many. But you can probably name Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez due to the media’s odd fixation on her with non-stop saturation coverage. Why has the media singled out one Representative for saturation coverage – and largely ignores the other 434 Representatives?
Controversial “viral” video clip was pushed on social media by “a network of anonymous” and apparently fake accounts
Social media is the new battleground. It’s being used to push people over the edge, to threaten violence against others, and in some cases, leading to actual violence. A controversial video clip that spread online in the past day was pushed by what appears to have been a fake account.
Russians ran pro-Jill Stein social media propaganda campaign
Russian trolls ran a social media campaign to encourage votes for Jill Stein for president in 2016.
How online news manipulates your perspectives on events by running the same story each day
Have you noticed that many online news web sites – both newspapers and TV stations – will run a news story and then leave it prominently on their web page for days – even weeks? The stories are typically ones that inflame reader or viewer emotions – and the effect of turning them into semi-permanent stories is to distort the perception of the importance of the story. The primary purpose is likely “click-bait” to drive advertising clicks, but they may also distort the public’s perception on important policy issues.
Fear and false assertion used to market a government law
Obamacare was judged unconstitutional by a Federal judge today. In response, a number of politicians made comments such as this one: “Today’s ruling is an assault on 133 million Americans with preexisting conditions”. That claim, however, is false. It is not well known but HIPAA (passed in 1996) provided protections for many, and about half of the U.S. states enacted various protections against pre-existing condition exclusions. This was hidden by design. By implying (falsely) that 1/3d of the U.S. population would be denied health insurance, the method of fear is used to create political support.
How airlines use intimidation to persuade you to spend more money
The new multi-level boarding scheme and “class-based” seating assignment is designed to embarrass the low payers, who must walk down the full front and center seats. Everyone knows that you, boarding last, are the cheap skate who bought a cheap ticket. This intimidation uses techniques of propaganda to persuade you to buy a higher priced ticket on your next flight.
The real reason Social Media propaganda works
“Nothing has undermined democracy more than people’s willingness to abdicate responsibility for thinking for themselves. “
#Facebook’s head of PR propaganda has quit #Fakebook
Facebook’s head of PR admits to developing a program to slime others with negative propaganda messaging. He had already submitted his resignation.
#Facebook uses propaganda troll methods to boost public’s image of Facebook
Facebook deploys propaganda campaigns to tarnish its competitors and to discredit FB critics by associating them with those who may have unsavory public reputations. Facebook adopts the same methods used by the Internet Research Agency of Russia but for the benefit of Facebook. None of this is a surprise considering that Facebook is the world’s leading propaganda platform.
“Lazy thinking” at root of accepting and sharing fake news on social media
People who tend towards analytical thinking styles are better at spotting fictional news than others.
Revisiting an old topic – almost every item on this propaganda poster was false
Revisiting the old Occupy Democrats propaganda poster from 2016, where nearly every item on the poster was an outright lie. I recently updated the “free childcare” section and added Parts 7 and 8 to this popular series. Seriously, it is the most searched for item on this blog!
Are social media posts badly misinformed? Probably
In light of the survey finding most voters are badly misinformed on well known and popular public policy issues the same is likely true about social media posts. It is likely that more than half of political or policy oriented social media posts are incorrect. But depending on who makes the posts, and how many followers they have, their incorrect posts can be influential – and plant non factual and illogical constructions in the minds of their targets.
Survey finds most voters are badly misinformed about well known policy topics
A survey finds that most voters are badly misinformed about popular policy topics. Literally, what they know is wrong – per the facts. This is not an opinion survey but a knowledge survey. Take the survey yourself – how well do you score on these knowledge topics? Consider the role that propaganda plays in misinforming voters, and how opinion polls of misinformed voters are then used to influence policy.