OFF: Re: HW: Tour Shirts

[Paul Mather]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2004 at 11:14:13AM +0100, M Holmes wrote:

=> Note the "...telling them how to vote" part of my statement.  People can
=> spot when they're being told how to vote because they know that some
=> newspapers have an axe to grind on that score.  On the other hand, most
=> people aren't very knowledgeable on foreign policy, and in the US
=> certainly, there's a famous lack of knowledge on many people's part
=> regarding history and geography of places outside of the US.  Add in a
=> general lack of interest in Iraq outside of "will these foreign wallahs
=> bomb my local garden centre?" and pretty much anyone who wants to
=> "inform" them could very easily bias their viewpoint.

Wow, that's a lot of sweeping statements for just one paragraph. :-)
But, given that you appear to be saying that media (tabloids, etc.)
*can* bias people's viewpoints, don't you think that a biased
viewpoint could bias voting, also?  In other words, that they can
subtly tell people for whom to vote?

I happen to think that a lot of people (the majority, actually) are
pretty entrenched in their voting habits, and will seek out media that
reinforces those beliefs.  So, I don't think the aforementioned bias
will have much of an effect in actually causing a change of vote in
that bloc.  But, there are, I hear tell, a group of all-important
"swing voters" (the "undecideds") that can be influenced to "vote for
the other person this time around."  In a close election, those people
hold the key to victory.  If those people can be "informed" such that
a particular editorial favourite is cast in a certain positive light,
it may tip the scales just enough.

BTW, I also happen to think that it's not so easy to discern that
you're being "told how to vote."  (I think of this as "marketing
science at work.")  Even those who consider themselves sophisticated
enough to realise they are being manipulated face an uphill struggle
in sorting fact from fiction, and a fiction be be all that's needed to
sway someone.  ("Remember the Maine!")  Most individuals lack the
resources and breadth of knowledge in all areas to be able to
ascertain categorically whether or not they're being lied to.  One way
to combat it is to consult a breadth of sources and hope some kind of
inconsistency will emerge to create doubt and pause for thought.
Unfortunately, with concentration of media ownership into fewer
editorial hands, that is becoming harder to do when it comes to mass
media.

"Issue ads" are the big thing now (to avoid fund-raising limitations).
They're telling people how to vote.  They're just not naming names
explicitly.  Sometimes the agenda is easy to spot; sometimes not so.

My biggest beef against tabloids is that many people still hold the
subliminal quaint notion they are newspapers, and so may put some
stock in what they print (despite the poor reporting and many past
instances of demonstrated lying).  As you and others have pointed out,
they are more about entertainment.  Hopefully, one day they'll be seen
as such on an emotional as well as an intellectual level.

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
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