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It's a little scary how powerful newspapers are at shaping public opinion. At least their reputation will be irreversibly damaged by breaking people's trust.

pdonis 13y ago
At least their reputation will be irreversibly damaged by breaking people's trust. I would love it if this were true, but I think it's way too optimistic.
- skylan_q 13y ago
  It's not reputation that makes the media successful at programming people. It's the repetition and omnipresence of the repetition.
kordless 13y ago
I don't think it's so much about shaping public opinion as it is playing up people's fears. The threat of discrimination is still present in our society and is a very important topic across multiple demographics. You can't blame someone for feeling strongly about something they fear. However, journalists who write in a blaming tone to play to these fears should be blamed for mislaying trust instead of being lauded for raising awareness. Nitasha Tiku made several negative blaming statements in her story. The one that stuck out to me as an obvious tell of a blaming statement was "That archetype, of course, is usually attached to a penis." In all fairness, I don't think that anyone wants to be addressed via 'being attached' to their private parts. Here's a link on NVC if anyone is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication. It's powerful stuff.
Confusion 13y ago
What everyone should, once again, learn from this is that you cannot take anything you read or hear at face value. Not even from people you trust, because things may be misrepresented by accident. Often it doesn't really matter, but if you get emotional about a subject and wish to comment on it, you should better be sure you have the facts straight and always temper your responses based on the possibility you don't know everything.

pdonis 13y ago

At least their reputation will be irreversibly damaged by breaking people's trust. I would love it if this were true, but I think it's way too optimistic.

skylan_q 13y ago
It's not reputation that makes the media successful at programming people. It's the repetition and omnipresence of the repetition.

kordless 13y ago

I don't think it's so much about shaping public opinion as it is playing up people's fears. The threat of discrimination is still present in our society and is a very important topic across multiple demographics. You can't blame someone for feeling strongly about something they fear. However, journalists who write in a blaming tone to play to these fears should be blamed for mislaying trust instead of being lauded for raising awareness. Nitasha Tiku made several negative blaming statements in her story. The one that stuck out to me as an obvious tell of a blaming statement was "That archetype, of course, is usually attached to a penis." In all fairness, I don't think that anyone wants to be addressed via 'being attached' to their private parts. Here's a link on NVC if anyone is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication. It's powerful stuff.

Confusion 13y ago

What everyone should, once again, learn from this is that you cannot take anything you read or hear at face value. Not even from people you trust, because things may be misrepresented by accident. Often it doesn't really matter, but if you get emotional about a subject and wish to comment on it, you should better be sure you have the facts straight and always temper your responses based on the possibility you don't know everything.