How does media and propaganda manipulate culture?

Throughout our lives the media and its propaganda have had a huge impact on our culture. It has been controlling us ever since it was made through deceiving and manipulating us. Through the use of language and the presentation of words and images, the media manipulates and controls us every day. About 98 percent of our thoughts are actually unconscious, therefore most of our thoughts and actions that arise from them and made not from our conscious. Reason requires emotions which are also not always conscious. It is not universal because people have different views. People always think by using frames for words or phrases. This is a major aspect of manipulation in our culture form the media. The use of words is a strong power of deceit and control. The example that George gave was through a sentence, “Do not think about elephant.” However, people will still think about elephant even though they tried to negate it because the frame of elephant is already in the brain and so people end up thinking about it anyways unconsciously. This is the same way that propaganda and the media manipulate their audience. For example, the democratic arguments activate republican frames through their use of words. This is what happens to us often. The media brings up a topic or issue of interest to the people and through the use of frames it gets more of the people’s attention because it makes them think about it whether consciously or unconsciously. This happens during advertisements of new products or news about world events such as war. The media tries to persuade us through vivid words and phrases that make the people agree or support them. For example when the media mentions to the audience what they think about on the issue of the war on terror. The frame here is war on terror and so that frame is already in the people’s minds and cannot be removed; so they just start to think about it. Not only do words manipulate the people but also the presentations manipulate the people. John Edwards used to communicate with his people through the use of eye contact with each individual person. In the media, Hillary talks to her audience with the use of great emotion in order to get to them and n some sense control their emotions to be like hers, or more precisely to manipulate them to be on her side. When she talks about universal healthcare she uses the words American values, decency and respect. These are the perfect set or frame of communication. When Obama uses the word trust he is also communicating with the people. Through the use of such words and a strong presentation of them such as by getting to the people’s emotions, the media can manipulate us on issues such as healthcare or war, by making us take the side of that certain type of media. The network of association is the use of the property of how the brain works. It’s an interconnected set of thoughts, ideas, and emotions. Through knowing how the brain responds to certain words, the media is able to utilize this mechanism by choosing certain words to manipulate the audience’s thoughts. For example the word liberal became associated with many other aspects through its constant use and application. That’s how the media knows how to activate and shape the networks in voters and people in general regarding other issues too. The media activates the networks in our mind to persuade us by using images and multisensors that persuade us how to make our lives better or improve our positions. Our culture and personal identity is the packaging of information in us. Through the power of words and phrase, and their proper presentations the media knows how to manipulate the people by knowing their values and using subliminal messages to get to their emotions and thoughts. The media knows what the people want, how they think and what makes them happy (such as material objects) and therefore, presents them through the use of powerful words and images. These techniques allow the media to deceive, control, and manipulate our culture in a way that persuades the people to support it.