cyu
3rd February 2010, 01:44
For anyone looking for another argument that the media should not be controlled by a tiny minority of wealthy capitalists:
Excerpts from http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/143831
Only 12 percent of Europeans claim to trust the media, compared to 15 percent of North Americans, 29 percent of Pacific Asians and 48 percent of Africans
Yet new research out of the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests that even the most hardened Europeans may succumb to media manipulation and change their political views if they are bombarded long enough with biased news.
Over time, Bruter found, and without exception, the readers subconsciously adopted the bias to varying degrees and changed their view of the EU and of themselves as Europeans, a few of them in the extreme. Surprisingly, they didn't register any change right after the newsletters stopped — not until full six months later, when they had obviously let down their guard.
They received essentially the same questionnaire twice more — right after the newsletters stopped and six months after that.
The findings showed that biased news had virtually no effect on whether citizens felt more or less European or more or less in favor of the EU, directly after the two-year experiment ended. But six months after the last newsletter arrived, the results showed that they were unmistakably affected.
"It shows that even the most 'unbelievable' propaganda may have an effect over time and that the most fallacious and baseless rumors, for instance, may shape opinion to an extent," Bruter said.
Excerpts from http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/143831
Only 12 percent of Europeans claim to trust the media, compared to 15 percent of North Americans, 29 percent of Pacific Asians and 48 percent of Africans
Yet new research out of the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests that even the most hardened Europeans may succumb to media manipulation and change their political views if they are bombarded long enough with biased news.
Over time, Bruter found, and without exception, the readers subconsciously adopted the bias to varying degrees and changed their view of the EU and of themselves as Europeans, a few of them in the extreme. Surprisingly, they didn't register any change right after the newsletters stopped — not until full six months later, when they had obviously let down their guard.
They received essentially the same questionnaire twice more — right after the newsletters stopped and six months after that.
The findings showed that biased news had virtually no effect on whether citizens felt more or less European or more or less in favor of the EU, directly after the two-year experiment ended. But six months after the last newsletter arrived, the results showed that they were unmistakably affected.
"It shows that even the most 'unbelievable' propaganda may have an effect over time and that the most fallacious and baseless rumors, for instance, may shape opinion to an extent," Bruter said.