The Dark(er) Side of Media: Crash Course Media Literacy #10

Summary

This video explores the darker side of media, comparing it to an 'evil twin' of advertising and public relations. It discusses propaganda, disinformation, and misinformation, highlighting how these tactics are used to manipulate public opinion and create confusion. The video delves into historical and contemporary examples, explaining how coordinated campaigns can distort reality and influence people's decisions. It emphasizes the importance of media literacy in recognizing and combating these deceptive practices in the digital age.

Takeaways

• 😈 Propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation are the 'evil twins' of media techniques like advertising and public relations.
• 📢 Propaganda is often used by governments to promote a specific viewpoint, sometimes using misleading or biased information.
• 💡 Disinformation deliberately spreads false or misleading information to confuse or distract the public.
• 🎭 Misinformation is unintentionally inaccurate information, often due to mistakes in reporting, especially during breaking news.
• 🌐 The digital age has made it easier to spread propaganda, disinformation, and misinformation, creating a complex media landscape.
• 🎩 Disinformation can use tactics similar to magic tricks, distracting people to make them more gullible to false information.
• 💥 Misinformation can have significant consequences, as it often leads to bad decisions based on incorrect information.
• 👀 Media literacy is essential to recognize and counteract the darker side of media.
• 📚 Understanding and identifying these 'evil twins' is crucial for being truly media literate.
• 🔍 The next steps in media literacy involve learning how to determine the credibility and truthfulness of media content.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the video script?

The video script discusses the darker side of media, focusing on propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation, and how these concepts relate to media literacy.

What is propaganda according to the script?

Propaganda is information used to promote a particular point of view, change behavior, or motivate action. It can include facts, ideas, opinions, or intentionally misleading or biased information.

How does the script differentiate between propaganda and disinformation?

Propaganda is often associated with psychological persuasion and manipulation by governments, while disinformation involves deliberately false or misleading information intended to confuse or distract the audience.

What historical examples of propaganda are mentioned in the script?

The script mentions U.S. propaganda during World Wars I and II, including the famous 'Uncle Sam' and 'Rosie the Riveter' images, as well as Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda during World War II.

What is disinformation, and how is it used?

Disinformation is deliberately false or misleading information used to confuse or distract people. It can be used to stir up tensions, create alternate realities, or excuse or dismiss bad actions or behavior.

What example of disinformation from the 2016 U.S. election is mentioned?

The script references Russian operatives purchasing misleading and extreme Facebook ads targeted at both liberal and conservative voters, as well as organizing opposing sides of a protest in front of a Texas Islamic Center.

What is misinformation, and how does it differ from disinformation?

Misinformation is unintentionally inaccurate information, often resulting from mistakes or errors in reporting. It differs from disinformation, which is deliberately misleading and intended to deceive.

How does the script explain the impact of misinformation in the digital age?

The script explains that misinformation spreads more easily online due to the variety of sources and the rapid sharing of information on social media. Once misinformation goes viral, it can be difficult to correct.

What does the script suggest is the best way to identify if information is from the darker side of media?

The script suggests that being media literate and critically analyzing the information we encounter is the best way to identify if it is from the darker side of media. This will be further explored in the next episode on media skills.

What role do campaigns play in media according to the script?

Campaigns are coordinated efforts used by advertisers and PR people to persuade the public to adopt certain beliefs or behaviors. They can be used to promote products, causes, or political candidates, but similar techniques can be employed for propaganda and disinformation.

Outlines

00:00

👿 The Nightmare of an Evil Twin

Imagine having an evil twin who looks just like you but is more sinister. They could steal your identity, family, and friends, leaving you alone and confused. This analogy introduces the darker aspects of media, specifically propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation, which are the 'evil twins' of advertising and public relations. Understanding these malicious techniques is crucial to becoming media literate, as they represent the darker side of media influence.

05:07

😈 Disinformation and Misdirection

Disinformation often works like propaganda but is designed to confuse the public. It can obscure facts, excuse bad behavior, or mislead people into believing false narratives. Historical examples include the Chinese government's response to the Tiananmen Square massacre and the spreading of fake news during the 2016 U.S. election. Disinformation can distract and lower people's ability to critically assess information, making them more susceptible to manipulation.

10:08

🌐 The Power of Media Literacy

Media literacy is essential in the digital age, where misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda spread easily. Reputable news sources may correct mistakes, but the sheer volume of information online makes it difficult to discern truth from falsehood. Misleading information can lead to poor decisions with serious consequences. Developing media skills helps people navigate this complex landscape and protect themselves from misinformation.

Keywords

💡Evil Twin

The 'Evil Twin' metaphor is used in the video to describe harmful or deceptive practices like propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation. These 'evil twins' resemble legitimate forms of media communication, such as advertising and public relations, but are used to manipulate and deceive audiences rather than inform or persuade them ethically.

💡Propaganda

Propaganda is information, often biased or misleading, used to promote a particular political cause or point of view. The video discusses how propaganda, while not inherently evil, is frequently associated with negative intentions, particularly when used by governments to manipulate public opinion during events like wars. For example, World War II propaganda was used to foster patriotism and nationalism.

💡Disinformation

Disinformation refers to deliberately false or misleading information spread with the intent to deceive. The video highlights how disinformation is often used to confuse and distract the public, such as during the 2016 U.S. election when Russian operatives used social media to mislead voters. Disinformation differs from propaganda in that its primary goal is to create confusion rather than promote a specific viewpoint.

💡Misinformation

Misinformation is inaccurate information that is spread unintentionally, often due to mistakes or errors in reporting. The video contrasts misinformation with disinformation, emphasizing that misinformation can still cause harm, especially during breaking news situations where errors are more likely to occur. An example given is the incorrect 1948 headline claiming Thomas Dewey won the U.S. presidential election.

💡Media Literacy

Media literacy is the ability to critically evaluate and understand media content. The video underscores the importance of media literacy in recognizing and resisting the 'evil twins' of propaganda, disinformation, and misinformation. Being media literate allows individuals to navigate the media landscape and make informed decisions based on accurate information.

💡Campaigns

Campaigns are organized efforts to influence public perception or behavior, typically through coordinated media strategies. The video explains how campaigns can be used both positively, such as promoting a product, and negatively, as in the case of propaganda. Effective campaigns saturate media with a unified message, making them powerful tools for persuasion or manipulation.

💡Coordination

Coordination in the context of the video refers to the organized efforts of multiple people or groups working together to achieve a specific goal. This concept is crucial to understanding how propaganda and disinformation campaigns are able to effectively influence public opinion. The video describes how coordinated disinformation campaigns, like those seen in the 2016 U.S. election, can drastically alter public perception.

💡Patriotism

Patriotism is a sense of pride and loyalty towards one's country. The video discusses how governments have historically used patriotic themes in propaganda to rally public support during wars. For example, World War II propaganda in the U.S. encouraged citizens to join the war effort or conserve resources, appealing to their sense of national duty.

💡Misdirection

Misdirection is a technique used to distract or divert attention away from the truth. The video compares disinformation tactics to a magician's trick, where the audience's attention is deliberately shifted to make them more susceptible to deception. Misdirection is a key component of disinformation campaigns that aim to confuse the public and obscure the truth.

💡Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square refers to the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing, China, which were violently suppressed by the Chinese government. The video uses this historical event to illustrate how disinformation can be used by governments to cover up the truth and manipulate public perception. The Chinese government continues to censor information about the massacre, claiming that reports are exaggerated by Western media.

Highlights

The transcript introduces the concept of an 'evil twin' metaphor to describe the darker side of media, emphasizing propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation.

Propaganda is defined as information used to promote a particular point of view, often associated with bad actors manipulating public opinion.

The U.S. government used propaganda during World War I and II to promote patriotism and nationalism, including iconic images like Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter.

Disinformation is highlighted as deliberately false or misleading information used to confuse or distract the public, often creating an alternate reality.

The transcript discusses the effectiveness of coordinated disinformation campaigns, particularly in the digital age, where information can be easily spread online.

An example is given of Russian operatives using Facebook ads to mislead American voters during the 2016 U.S. election, showcasing the power of digital disinformation.

The concept of active misdirection is explored, comparing it to magic tricks that lower our attention vigilance, making us more gullible.

The importance of verifying information sources is stressed, as many people share news without fact-checking, leading to widespread misinformation.

Misinformation is described as unintentionally inaccurate information, often occurring during breaking news situations where facts are not fully verified.

The transcript provides an example of misinformation, referencing the incorrect 1948 newspaper headline that declared Thomas Dewey the winner over Harry S. Truman.

Misinformation is noted to have serious consequences in the digital age, as bad information can lead to poor decisions with significant impacts.

The transcript warns that disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda are easier to spread in today's digital environment, making media literacy critical.

Renee Hobbs is quoted, stating that 'Everyone, it seems, has become a propagandist' in the current media landscape.

The transcript concludes with a promise to teach media skills in the next episode to help viewers navigate the darker side of media.

Crash Course Media Literacy is presented as a resource for understanding and critically analyzing media content in today's complex information environment.

Transcripts

Say you have an evil twin.

They’re just like you but...different – somehow evil-er.

Maybe they have a fancy twirling mustache and are just constantly listening to emo music.

Maybe they hate chocolate and fun and bubbles and the greatest film of all time, Titanic.

What if your evil twin not only looked and sounded just like you, but pretended to be you.

They stole your family and your friends and your significant other and your favorite pair of shoes.

They persuaded everyone they were the real you and you were the evil twin.

And then you were left all confused and alone and you didn’t even get a fancy twirling mustache.

Sounds like a nightmare, right?

We’ve talked all about persuasive techniques and advertising and public relations during this course.

But we haven’t talked about their evil twins: propaganda, misinformation and disinformation.

These are the big baddies of the media world, the villains you really need to watch out for.

You could call them the dark side of media.

Though, that would make advertisements that sell you things you probably don’t really need the “bright side.”

Let’s go with the darker side.

Either way, understanding these evil twins in their many forms is mission critical.

There’s no way to be media literate without them.

But to understand evil you’ll need to think evil.

Are you ready?

[Theme Music]

Remember, advertisements are public notices promoting a product, event or service.

Public relations is the management of the relationship between the public and a brand.

Both advertisers and PR people use campaigns, or planned, systematic efforts to intentionally persuade us of certain beliefs or to act a certain way.

For example, a company that makes headphones might launch an advertising campaign where a dozen celebrities are filmed and photographed using their product.

These may all be released at the same time and in different locations so that everyone sees their favorite celeb wearing them.

This campaign wants you to like their product because you like their spokespeople.

Or, a public relations firm might start a publicity campaign to get their client all over the media.

Like when your favorite actor is in a new movie and suddenly they’re singing carpool karaoke and dancing with The Roots and reading mean tweets about themselves on TV.

This campaign wants you to be aware that this star has a new project coming out.

Hopefully you’ll want to experience it, too.

Campaigns that saturate the media landscape with a united theme and message can be really effective.

They can convince us to buy new phones and stop buying cigarettes and vote for one candidate over another in the next election.

One of the key components of a campaign is its coordination.

For a campaign to have the biggest impact requires multiple people working in tandem to accomplish a cohesive goal.

But what happens when that same technique – the widespread coordination of people bent on shifting the media landscape –

what happens when that’s taken up for evil?

That’s where propaganda comes in.

Propaganda is information used to promote a particular point of view, change behavior or motivate action.

Sometimes that information is facts and ideas, sometimes it’s opinions, or intentionally misleading or biased.

Though technically propaganda itself isn’t inherently evil, it is usually associated with bad actors.

That’s because it’s often used to manipulate the public into things they might not naturally do,

like supporting a war or believing harmful stereotypes about others.

And most typically, the people doing the coordinated propaganda campaigns are part of governments.

During World War I, the U.S. Committee on Public Information was formed for just such a purpose – to produce pro-war propaganda.

In World War II it was the Office of War Information.

They made films and posters and advertisements and more to promote patriotism and nationalism.

The government even teamed up with advertisers to get them to push patriotic propaganda.

The propaganda focused on fulfilling one’s national duty to join the war or save food for the war or buy bonds to support it.

It was like peer pressure with beautifully decorated posters.

That famous image of Uncle Sam saying “I want you for the U.S. army”?

Oh yeah, that’s propaganda.

And it was so good they brought it back for World War II.

Rosie the Riveter? Oh yeah, she is too.

Sorry if I just ruined your favorite Halloween costume.

Other types of wartime propaganda make the opposition seem violent or barbaric to stoke fear in the enemy.

U.S. propaganda during World War II sometimes featured racist depictions of Japanese people for this purpose.

Similarly, in Germany the Nazi party sent around anti-Semitic propaganda before and during World War II.

If propaganda is used to psychologically persuade,

disinformation is used to confuse and distract the intended audience using deliberately false or misleading information.

Disinformation campaigns can be used to poke and prod opposing groups and heighten the tension between them.

And just because these campaigns aren’t being done by official government propaganda offices doesn’t mean they’re small scale, or ineffective.

With the reach of the internet, and the ability to make digital media, people all over the globe can organize themselves for coordinated campaigns.

By working together, flooding different media outlets with carefully crafted messages, a group can drastically change public information.

During the 2016 U.S. election, Russian operatives purchased misleading and extreme Facebook ads targeted to both liberal and conservative American voters.

They even appeared to organize both sides of a protest in front of a Texas Islamic Center.

So sometimes disinformation can work like propaganda, trying to get people to act.

But more often, what disinformation is best at is confusing the facts of an issue.

Disinformation can whip up a smokescreen, and disperse the attention of the masses.

This style of disinformation can also be used to excuse or dismiss bad actions or behavior.

In Beijing in 1989, students led pro-democracy demonstrations in the capital’s Tiananmen Square.

The Chinese government responded violently, killing hundreds or even thousands of peaceful protestors.

Why do I say hundreds or thousands?

Because the government stymied efforts to make a full accounting of the dead.

Since the massacre, the Chinese government has called reports of the events misleading and suggested the Western media is exaggerating it just to demonize them.

They still censor information about it today.

When powerful governments become set on disinformation campaigns, it can be difficult for its citizens to discover the truth.

It can be even more difficult for outsiders to get well-sourced information, too.

Disinformation can even include magic tricks, to – well, kind of.

Let’s head into the Thought Bubble for this.

Some disinformation is full of lies, like we said – but some of it is full of distraction, too.

The art of active misdirection is often used by political pundits and celebrity press agents.

They’ll plant stories in the press about their party or client or the opposition to distract from something they don’t want to talk about.

It’s like how a magician does that funny thing with his hand to distract you from wherever he got that rabbit.

Or take, for example, this headline: Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President.

That sounds kind of wild, right?

The Pope never gets involved in US politics like that – an attention-grabbing headline for sure.

The thing is, this headline is purely fabricated news.

Published in July 2016 by WTOE 5 News, a now defunct website, it was entirely made up by an unknown writer.

The site was actually part of a network of websites that published more than 750 similarly made up articles.

Why? Who would do such a thing?

Well, apparently lots of Macedonian teenagers distracted angry, partisan American voters with stuff like this leading up to the 2016 election.

Magician Sam Sharpe actually describes this distraction as lowering our attention vigilance.

By slightly shifting our gaze to something else, we’re lulled into an atmosphere of susceptibility, making us more gullible to improbable situations.

When we find ourselves in an atmosphere we usually trust, like Facebook for example, we’re less likely to question the info we find.

Plus, many of us only read headlines – 59% of links shared on social media aren’t even clicked.

We just share away without a second thought.

Tricking us is like taking candy from a baby, apparently.

The moral of the story: always double check the veracity of information and sources we see, lest we become victims of misdirection.

Thanks, Thought Bubble!

The key thing to understand is just how coordinated disinformation can be today.

Not just a white lie told in a forum post, but whole networks of people working to create an alternate reality.

One of the reasons disinformation is so effective online is because of the existence of a related phenomenon: Misinformation.

This is a different beast altogether – misinformation is unintentionally inaccurate information.

Accidents, or mistakes in reporting.

Often the most egregious examples of misinformation happen during a breaking news situation.

When there’s a lot of information floating around during a crisis and members of the media want to be the first to report on the news, mistakes happen.

They get it wrong. They don’t double check. They make a typo.

Reputable news organizations will issue a correction when they’ve made a mistake like this.

Sometimes misinformation becomes a pretty funny story.

Like that time The Chicago Tribune printed 150,000 newspapers saying that Thomas Dewey had beat Harry S. Truman in the 1948 election.

Spoiler alert: he lost. Awkward.

Misinformation has always been a problem.

As long as there have been news sources, there have been errors and corrections and updates.

But our new online media environment changes how those mistakes get made, and the impact they have on people.

Increasingly, people get information from a variety of sources online, often shared and mixed together over social media,

rather than from a small number of central institutions.

It can make for some laughable mistakes, but the darker side of media is no joke.

We base important decisions on the media every day, from what we’ll buy to who we’ll vote for.

Bad information can lead to bad decisions with serious consequences.

Disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda are even easier to spread in the digital age.

Media literacy scholar Renee Hobbs has even said that today, “Everyone, it seems, has become a propagandist.”

Weeding through it all can be hard to do.

Especially if the initial misinformation goes viral.

Once a consumer hears or reads misinformation, it’s often hard to correct it in their minds, even when confronted with the right information.

Plus, once we’ve deemed a source trustworthy or safe, it’s hard for us to even criticize their content.

Our brains are pretty stubborn.

What’s the best way to determine if what you’re seeing is from the darker side of media?

Don’t worry, we’re going to walk you through it in our next episode on media skills.

Until then, I’m Jay Smooth and this is Crash Course Media Literacy.

Crash Course Media Literacy is filmed in the Dr. Cheryl C. Kinney Studio in Missoula, MT.

It’s made with the help of all of these nice people, and our animation team is Thought Cafe.

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