Showing titles in Propaganda & Political Psychology

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, one renowned scientist, in his famous bowtie, appeared daily on major news networks such as MSNBC, NPR, the BBC, and others. Dr. Peter J. Hotez often went without sleep, working around the clock to develop a nonprofit COVID-19 vaccine and to keep the public informed. During that time, he was one of the most trusted voices on the pandemic and was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his selfless work. He also became one of the main targets of anti-science rhetoric that gained traction through conservative news media.

Zieht sich eine liberale Gesellschaft gerade den Boden weg, auf dem sie fest stehen sollte? Ein Essay darüber, was die digitale Massenkommunikation zwischenmenschlich anrichtet. Nichts hat das Zusammenleben so umfassend verändert wie die Digitalisierung – wir denken, fühlen und streiten anders, seit wir dauervernetzt und überinformiert sind. Demokratiepolitisch bedeutsam wird dies bei der vielbeschworenen Debattenkultur. Denn die Umgangsformen der sogenannten Sozialen Medien haben längst auf die anderen Arenen übergegriffen, Politik und Journalismus spielen schon nach den neuen, erbarmungsloseren Regeln.

Mit "Manufacturing Consent" legten Edward S. Herman und Noam Chomsky im Jahr 1988 ein umfassendes Werk zur Funktionsweise der Massenmedien in kapitalistischen Demokratien vor, das heute als eine der meistgelesenen Studien zum Thema gilt. Fein und detailliert zeigen die Autoren, wie die Medien einen gesellschaftlichen Konsens herstellen, der den herrschenden wirtschaftlichen und politischen Interessen folgt.

Wissen Sie, was Propaganda ist? Haben Sie in Ihrem täglichen Leben Beispiele dafür gesehen? Denken Sie an die Werbung, die Sie täglich sehen. Werden darin emotionale Anreize, Angstappelle oder prominente Befürworter eingesetzt? Auffällige Werbeslogans von einem bekannten Sportartikelhersteller oder einer Fastfood-Kette oder emotionale Appelle in Autowerbung mit Bildern glücklicher Familien sind nur einige Beispiele dafür, wie Propaganda eingesetzt wird, um unsere Gedanken und Gefühle zu manipulieren.

As television began to overtake the political landscape in the 1960s, network broadcast companies, bolstered by powerful lobbying interests, dominated screens across the nation. Yet over the next three decades, the expansion of a different technology, cable, changed all of this. 24/7 Politics tells the story of how the cable industry worked with political leaders to create an entirely new approach to television, one that tethered politics to profits.

Wahr werden und aussteigen? Oder weiter Augen zu und sterben? Wir befinden uns an der letzten Haltestelle vor der Hölle. Wie sind wir hierher geraten? Wo sind wir falsch abgebogen? Wieso stand auf jedem Straßenschild hierhin eine Lüge? Und wieso war der ganze Weg damit gepflastert? Seit Ende der achtziger Jahre führt eine allmächtige Psychopathen-Clique uns an der Nase herum Richtung Abgrund.

As the host of The Michael Brooks Show and cohost of the Majority Report, Brooks was a progressive fighter whose work brought people together from around the world. In this, his first book, he lets his understanding of the digital media environment direct his analysis of the "conservative rebels" who had taken YouTube by storm in 2018. Brooks provides a theoretically rigorous but accessible critique of the most prominent "renegades," including Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and Brett Weinstein while also examining the social, political, and media environment that such rebels thrive in.

Wenn jetzt nicht etwas Grundlegendes geschieht, dann war's das mit der Freiheit. Und nicht die Angriffe ihrer Gegner werden ihr den Garaus machen - die Gleichgültigkeit derer, die sie so lange genossen, wird es tun. Pandemien, Weltkrieg, Klimanotstand: Die Freiheit schwebt in höchster Gefahr. "Freiheitsgesäusel"? "Mehr Diktatur wagen"? Was ist kaputt in den Herzen und Köpfen der vielen, dass sie sich selbst und ihre Freiheit so geringschätzen, ja regelrecht verachten? Warum stimmen sie ihrer eigenen Entrechtung zu und scheinen in ihre Ketten geradezu verliebt.

Cancel culture is an insidious force in society today. In the seconds it takes to make one regrettable social media post—or wind up on the wrong side of a false accusation or misunderstanding—reputations, relationships, and careers are destroyed. Have we entered an era when people cannot make mistakes; where no apology or change of heart can ever deliver forgiveness? In The Cancel Culture Curse, global crisis manager Evan Nierman and his colleague Mark Sachs examine the impact of cancel culture in today’s media-driven world.

Imagine a deadly pathogen that, once created, could infect any person in any part of the globe within seconds. No need to wait for travellers, trains, or air traffic to spread it, all you need is an internet connection. In this gripping investigation, Pulitzer Prize winner James Ball decodes the cryptic language of the online right and with a surgeon’s precision tracks the spread of QAnon, the world’s first digital pandemic.

Incels. Anti Vaxxers. Conspiracy theorists. Neo-Nazis. Once, these groups all belonged on the fringes of the political spectrum. Today, accelerated by a pandemic, global conflict and rapid technological change, their ideas are becoming more widespread: QAnon proponents run for U.S. Congress, neo-fascists win elections in Europe, and celebrity influencers like Kanye West spread dangerous myths to millions. Going Mainstream asks the question: What is happening here?

Though people frequently use mobile technologies for news consumption, evidence from several fields shows that smaller screens and slower connection speeds pose major limitations for meaningful reading. In News and Democratic Citizens in the Mobile Era, Johanna Dunaway and Kathleen Searles demonstrate the effects of mobile devices on news attention, engagement, and recall, and identify a key cognitive mechanism underlying these effects: cognitive effort.

"Why do conservatives hate comedy? Why is there no right-wing Jon Stewart?" These sorts of questions launch a million tweets, a thousand op-eds, and more than a few scholarly analyses. That's Not Funny argues that it is both an intellectual and politically strategic mistake to assume that comedy has a liberal bias. Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx take listeners—particularly self-described liberals—on a tour of contemporary conservative comedy and the "right-wing comedy complex."

The Propagandists' Playbook peels back the layers of the right-wing media manipulation machine to reveal why its strategies are so effective and pervasive, while also humanizing the people whose worldviews and media practices conservatism embodies.

On Being Unreasonable mounts a vital and spirited defence of why and how being unreasonable can help improve the world. It examines and parses the pros and cons of our rules around reason, but leaves us with the rousing question: What if behaving unreasonably at times might be the best way to bring about meaningful change that is long overdue?

Meinungsfreiheit und freier Journalismus sind die schärfsten Waffen zur Verteidigung von Demokratien. Maria Ressa steht wie keine andere für den Kampf um die Wahrheit und gegen Hass und Gewalt. In ihrem Buch beschreibt sie, wie Demokratien durch Autokraten und Diktatoren ausgehöhlt werden - mittels sozialer Medien. Denn Facebook und Google dulden aus Profitgier Propaganda und Fake News. Ressa legt ein Netzwerk der Desinformation offen, das den ganzen Globus umspannt.

The chief weapon deployed by the government-corporate-media Establishment against the Trump presidency was propaganda. Time and again, allegations from anonymous sources were disseminated by a partisan media, promoted by a dishonest Democrat Party leadership, and ultimately debunked when the facts surfaced. But by the time the truth came out, it was too late. There had already been casualties. One of the highest profile casualties was Paul Manafort.

Mildred Gillars, nicknamed "Axis Sally," was an American broadcaster employed by Nazi Germany to disseminate propaganda during World War II. Following her capture after the war, she became the first woman to be convicted of treason against the United States. In March 1949, she was sentenced to ten to thirty years' imprisonment. She was released early in 1961. After being granted probation, Mildred converted to the Catholic faith and lived at the Our Lady Of Bethlehem Abbey in Columbus Ohio for several years.

While quackery—loosely defined as the spread of false "knowledge," often accompanied by various versions of "snake oil"—is not a novel phenomenon, it has never posed as great a threat to public health as today. In Quack Quack, Dr. Joe Schwarcz focuses on the deluge of anecdotes, cherry-picked data, pseudoscientific nonsense, and seductive baseless health claims that undermine efforts to educate the public about evidence-based science. The wide scope of the topics drawn from past and present aims to cast a life preserver to people drowning in a sea of misinformation. 

Major Garrett and David Becker completely upend The Big Lie that has infected the Far Right with firsthand stories of election officials like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, election director Thomas Freitag. And they reveal the concrete evidence proving that 2020 may have been the most secure US election ever. Garrett and Becker lay bare the methods being undertaken right now to undercut faith, belief, and effectiveness of elections, identifying the places where the most dire actions have been taken since 2020.