Category Archives: Psychology

A Media Literacy Teaching Point

06 Wednesday Mar 2013

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Effective media literacy demands that an individual be aware and cautious about the amount of personal information they post on the internet or maintain on their computers. This information can be easily gathered and used to build a profile that involves personnel activities which can then further be used in predictive analysis for both good and nefarious reasons.

Created by Febelfin (“Fédération belge du secteur financier”)
 

Potter recommends seven strategies to protecting your online privacy:

  1. Search for information about yourself
  2. Correct inaccuracies
  3. Be careful what you post about yourself online
  4. Be skeptical about requests for information
  5. Study privacy policies
  6. Download software to protect your computer from threats to your privacy
  7. Set up your Internet browsers to disallow cookies as a default (Potter, 2013).

(…besides, sugar is bad for you…)  😉

References

Potter, W. J. (2013). Media Literacy. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

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Chris Hedges on Media Psychology

01 Friday Mar 2013

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“We are entranced by electronic hallucinations which peddle fantasy, which most Americans believe.  These systems of propaganda and brainwashing and miscommunication are very, very sophisticated. If we sever ourselves from a print based culture, and we rely on these systems (which many people do already for their understanding of reality) then we are in essence captives.”

–  Chris Hedges, Death of the Liberal Class, Q&A.

Al-Jazeera America – Coming to a Cable Channel Near You, Part Two

16 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in Psychology, Public Diplomacy

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Media channel Al Jazeera has an unprecedented chance to increase its psychological impact on Americans, if it doesn’t appear to be just another partisan outlet, but that chance may be floundering. In 2011 Wadah Khanfar, Director General of the Al Jazeera Network, left the channel after having built it up to represent an independent and fairly objective news resource in the Middle East. He was replaced by Qatari royal family member Sheikh Ahmed Bin Jassim Al Thani, an engineer specializing in gas and oil projects, as the royal family owns the channel which has resulted in further internal changes. This article in Germany’s Der Spiegel captures some of those issues and the hemorrhaging of talent while also keeping in mind that Al Jazeera is about to gain a foothold in America through its recent purchase of Current TV (Kühn, Reuter, & Schmitz, 2013).

Al Jazeera's Global Reach

Der Spiegel

Never before has another countries’ attempts at statecraft and influence had such an opportunity to communicate with Americans through media in their own homes. Even Britain’s BBC Network has found that challenging. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave the station a huge plug when she stated that the United States was losing the international information war. Al Jazeera, she said, was “literally changing people’s minds and attitudes” and, like it or hate it, “it is really effective … In fact viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news” (Gornall, 2011).

References

Gornall, J. (2011, June 24). Arab Spring Brings   Al Jazeera to Full Bloom. Retrieved Jan 12, 2013, from The National:   http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/arab-spring-brings-al-jazeera-to-full-bloom

Kühn, A., Reuter, C., & Schmitz, G. P. (2013,   Feb 15). After the Arab Spring: Al-Jazeera Losing Battle for Independence.   Retrieved Feb 16, 2013, from Spiegel Online:   http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/al-jazeera-criticized-for-lack-of-independence-after-arab-spring-a-883343.html#ref=rss

10 Sunday Feb 2013

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An interesting and insightful read which examines a fallacious technique of propaganda known as the straw man. Psychologically, the straw man concept breaks things down to a simplistic level in which context is lost and decisions are relegated to “yes/no” choices, or extremes, which are more difficult to defend. This technique can be refuted by clarifying one’s original position.

P.O.P.'s avatarThe Propaganda Professor

straw man

Once upon a time when I was a teenager and didn’t know any better, I got into a discussion (i.e. argument) with a relative on a topic that he had strong beliefs about. That topic was the hazards posed by certain chemicals used in growing and processing food — a hazard which, he was convinced, was nonexistent, but was merely a fraud concocted by devious scientists, or the government, or some other “them” who couldn’t be trusted. At one point, he said to me, ” if it wasn’t for chemicals, you couldn’t live.” Although I wasn’t even familiar with the term at the time, this was my first real awareness of the straw man tactic, which is the sixth in our series of propaganda techniques.

A straw man is an oversimplified substitute for an actual issue or another person’s actual position on an issue.  Although the term’s origins are unclear…

View original post 1,284 more words

Media Psychology and ‘Call of Duty’ Video Game Impact, Part 1

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

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The influence of popular violent video games, such as the Call of Duty series, has penetrated into the global consciousness and culture as an example of the media psychology. Last year Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 grossed $1 billion dollars in sales within 15 days of its release and $500 million dollars in the first 24 hours (LeJacq, 2012). Averaging $60 per game, that’s more than 1.5 million copies sold in 15 days. Its predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, sold 8.8 million units in the United States alone in its first month (LeJacq, 2012). Two recent examples seem to point to it becoming a cross-cultural phenomenon. The first example being of an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photo of a French soldier during combat operations sporting a facemask that resembles a character in the game known as “Ghost” to protect himself from dust. Continue reading →

Social Media

30 Wednesday Jan 2013

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“If you’re not paying for something, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold” – blue_beetle, 2010.

The Manti Te’o Hoax: What the Hell Were Thousands of Media Professionals Thinking?

21 Monday Jan 2013

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What an entertaining ride for the fans! This has to run the full psychological gamut, from reactions of sympathy and admiration for his performance in tribute to his “dead girlfriend” to betrayal, not only his, allegedly by Tuiasosopo, but by the media who didn’t do their job. It’s interesting as well that this “story” continues to hold the fan’s attention. It’s just another soap opera but this time with a sports twist. Standby for Katie Couric’s interview on the 24th.

Al-Jazeera America – Coming to a Cable Channel Near You

20 Sunday Jan 2013

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Al-Jazeera recently announced that it had finally broken into the American media by purchasing Al Gore’s Current TV network. It’s been a long time coming in this nation that appeared to support the mass psychological vilification of the channel following the agenda and cues of former President George Bush.  During those years, Al-Jazeera was a new offering that presented the Middle Eastern perspective on world activities – a view that most in the Bush administration didn’t care for as it tended to be critical of American activities in the region – which can be seen in the documentary Control Room (Noujaim, 2004). Continue reading →

Confirming the Obvious – With Data

12 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by in Media Effects, Psychology

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I’m often amused by the scientific need to confirm the obvious – it can’t be real until it’s been tested, documented and peer reviewed, which I fully understand has a purpose.  A recent study claims to show causality between video streaming and viewer behavior. Causality in itself is a significant term indicating that there is a proven relationship between one factor and another establishing cause and effect. Typically what science documents is that there exists a correlation between two or more factors. Correlation indicates a relationship, but not cause and effect. In this case, relying on more than 23 million video playbacks and more than 6 million unique visitors, the study released late last year documents that a video “start” delay lasting for more than two seconds causes viewers to begin to abandon the video (Sitaraman & Krishnan, 2012). Continue reading →

30 Chapters and 47 Media Psychology Authors…

03 Thursday Jan 2013

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…is what you get in the 2013 Oxford Handbook of Media Psychology edited by Dr. Karen Dill of Fielding University. My only initial critique is that of all the reputable authors, only five appear to come from abroad (two from Germany, one from Italy, one from Japan, and one from the Netherlands). This begs the exclamation: What! No David Giles?

Otherwise, it appears it will be a great read as time goes on.

the-oxford-handbook-of-media-psychology