Social media, confirmation bias and its use in marketing

Social media, confirmation bias and its use in marketing

This post first appeared on my technology blog in early 2014, prior to creating the Occupy Propaganda web site devoted to analysis of social media propaganda. Confirmation bias occurs when we tend to give weight to information that supports our beliefs and to ignore or discard information that opposes our beliefs. Several studies find social media reinforces confirmation bias. All the studies I found address this in the context of politics and liberal or conservative bias.  However, the issue is much more…

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False assertion and False choice: Tesla versus Edison poster

False assertion and False choice: Tesla versus Edison poster

The following poster has appeared many times in my social media feed. The conclusion you are intended to draw is also false. Source   Another variation: TL; DR Summary These posters imply that Tesla cared about people more than making money versus Thomas Edison, who he once worked for as an employee (or another version of the poster, the evil person is George Westinghhouse) who only cared about making money. In reality, Tesla’s nearly 300 patents made him a very rich…

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How White Supremacists incited panic and fear using social media propaganda at the University of Missouri

How White Supremacists incited panic and fear using social media propaganda at the University of Missouri

This post documents – in detail – how white supremacists used social media to create genuine fear and hysteria at the University of Missouri in late 2015. Summary White supremacists, KKK and/or neo Nazi’s used social media propaganda to incite fear and panic by falsely asserting that the KKK was on the University of Missouri campus and acting violently (Assertion, Lie). This propaganda created fear among the students, who then passed along frightening hoax statements and photos as facts, creating more…

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Leaving out details to make a story more dramatic

Leaving out details to make a story more dramatic

TL;DR Summary ‘Milwaukee police “accidentally” shot a 13 year old girl at an elementary school after she became “combative”.’ By placing the word “accidentally” in quotes, followed by the word “combative”, this propaganda poster sets the viewer up to believe the police intentionally shot a 13 year old “combative” girl. The poster leaves out that the officer’s gun was in the holster and that the MPD weapons do not have holster safeties. This information negates the attempted spin on the…

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Social media “quotable quote” propagation

Social media “quotable quote” propagation

A topic we have covered before is the prevalence of “famous quotes” said to be by historical figures. Much of the time, there is either no record that the “famous quote” was said by the historical figure or there is proof that the quote came from someone else. Yet seemingly everyone publishes “quotable quotes” on social media. Here is another example: Not surprisingly, this quote originated, in a slightly modified form, from a physicist in 1963 and has nothing to do…

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Do some people want to receive propaganda? YES

Do some people want to receive propaganda? YES

So it goes with propaganda. For propaganda to be effective, it requires submissive subjects. As Professor Nicholas O’Shaughnessy wrote, propaganda is a “co-production in which we are willing participants.” Source: Why Does Propaganda Work? Some People Want It | Zero Hedge The answer is an absolute yes! Millions of people voluntarily belong to Facebook groups whose sole purpose is the dissemination of propaganda. Whether it be left or right leaning political groups, environmental and other activist groups, many people read…

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Did a Court ban Native Americans from protesting on their own land?

Did a Court ban Native Americans from protesting on their own land?

TL;DR Summary Native Americans and others are protesting oil pipeline construction in North Dakota. This “news” item says the “U.S. government bans Native American Tribe from Protesting on their own land – send in police to remove protesters”. The graphic image looks scary. Except that is not a Native American and this photo is from 2012, in Rio de Janiero, Brazil and has nothing to do with the events occurring in North Dakota. That is a first clue that this may…

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Facebook censors a newspaper’s use of famous historical photo

Facebook censors a newspaper’s use of famous historical photo

Mark Zuckerberg has been accused of an abuse of power after Facebook censored one of the most famous images of the Vietnam war from Facebook. Source: Mark Zuckerberg accused of abusing power after Facebook censors Vietnam war ‘napalm girl’ photo Facebook censored the use, by Norway’s largest newspaper, of a very famous historical photo from the Vietnam war, taken by a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer. Facebook then censored the prime minister of Norway when she posted the censored photo on…

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