#mass media

[vintage-tigre]

[muppet-facts]

Muppet Fact #1711

Dr. Strangepork's full name is Dr. Julius T. Strangepork. It is unknown what the "T" stands for.

Sources:

Newman, Frederick. "Crazed Pigs Mob Spock!" In Muppet Magazine, vol. 2, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 22-5. https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Muppet_Magazine_issue_7

Mass Media. Muppets Party Cruise. TDK Interactive, PlayStation 2, 2003.

[lord-of-the-noodles]

[toscanoirriverente]

Non è censura, è insabbiamento.

È un format terroristico, chiaro? Lo stesso messo in atto a Nizza e in Germania e in molte altre occasioni. Ogni volta ci raccontano che era un pazzo isolato. No. Sono lupi solitari che eseguono un format infallibile.

[unsolicited-opinions]

Understanding Propaganda

(Signal > Noise: Bite-Sized Media Literacy)

Words mean things. Specific things.

Propaganda isn't another word for lies.

Propaganda isn't goose-stepping fascists or shadowy intelligence agencies.

Propaganda is the strategic use of communication to influence public opinion, emotion, or behavior in service of a specific agenda.

That agenda might be political, religious, ideological, or commercial...but the goal is always control. Control of what you think, what you feel, and what you do.

Propaganda simplifies and flattens complex issues into simple ones, frames narratives to benefit one side, and appeals to emotion over critical reasoning.

It often uses half-truths, selective data, and identity-driven language to bind you to a group... or drive you away from another.

Propaganda can be subtle (a meme) or grand (a political speech). It can use truth, falsity, or a carefully curated mix.

The defining feature of propaganda is intent: it's trying to shape your reality.

Propaganda Techniques

Most propaganda includes some combination of the following:

Appeal to emotion (fear, pride, outrage, belonging)

Simplification (good vs. evil, us vs. them)

Repetition (if you hear it enough, it must be true)

Selective framing (leaving inconvenient facts out)

Authority signals (fonts, uniforms, aesthetics)

Audience targeting (different messages for different groups)

Propaganda isn't just about convincing, it's about conditioning. It aims to create reflexive responses so you feel the truth of something before you even start to think about it.

How Propaganda Is Different From...

Education: Education aims to expand your understanding, even when the truth is uncomfortable or complicated. Propaganda narrows it down to what you're supposed to believe. Both education and propaganda are preached by university instructors.

Persuasion: Ethical persuasion presents arguments and evidence, respects autonomy, and invites dialogue. Propaganda bypasses rational engagement and pressures conformity.

Marketing: Marketing promotes products or services, often with exaggeration but rarely claiming moral urgency. Propaganda sells a worldview, often with existential stakes.

Why It Works

Humans are:

Tribal

Emotional

Cognitively lazy

We like stories - narratives make sense out of chaos.

We like certainty

We don't like feeling out of step with our peers.

Propaganda hijacks these universal and unavoidable traits of the human animal.

It's effective because those who generate it understand these vulnerabilities.

Understanding propaganda means seeing it not just as deception, but as a mirror held up to our psychology.

One last thing you must understand about propaganda:

Propaganda has gotten more and more powerful with each media revolution. The printing press, broadcast radio, television, the internet. Each media revolution has captured more and more attention from its consumers.

The more power a medium has over attention, the more dangerous propaganda becomes within it.

We now live in an age of pervasive social media within an attention economy.

What does that tell you about how vulnerable we are?

What does it tell you about the relative vulnerabilities of various generations based on which mass media they were exposed to?

Above: From Ferb Latin. I nearly choked with laughter when I saw this episode.

More:

More #Signal > Noise

I am not immune to propaganda

Bias≠Lying

Feelings don't care about your facts

[forestgreenandgray]

genuinely curious why people use "media" as the default catchall term instead of "art"

[reality-detective]

Barack Obama's ICE chief gets an award for 920,000 removals

Donald Trump’s ICE chief gets called a Nazi

It’s the same person, Tom Homan!!!

In 2012 Obama deported 409,000 people

In 2025 Trump deported 290,000 people

Trump Derangement Syndrome is real because the media & Demonrats brainwash you into be-LIE-ving their lies. 🤔

You should try doing your own research, don't you think? 🤔

[n64retro]

StarCraft 64 Mass Media / Blizzard Nintendo 64 2000