Media

Media manipulation and public relations “spin” are prevalent practices in modern media seen across multiple platforms today. Although mass media communication can be used to impartially inform and educate the public to enable them to make informed decisions in all areas of their lives, increasingly mass media is used to construct and control messages to create an image or argument that reflects a particular point of view or interest. An array of strategies, related to those used in propaganda are used, such as the suppression of information or alternate opinions, diverting of attention to somewhere else or filling the air time with another media event, fear mongering and demonization, claims of consensus, repetition of falsities, discrediting or scapegoating, and declaration of authority on a subject.