Guest
The Media Matrix: How propaganda and mass media are impacting America’s contact with reality This multimedia presentation describes the effects of the media in eroding the American perception of reality. Second graders easily recognize a picture of Ronald McDonald, but 30 percent of 4th graders cannot identify a photograph of Abraham Lincoln. A majority of Americans in a poll in 2004 believed the 911 hijackers came from Iraq. These and dozens of other cognitive errors trace themselves to a pattern of media over-exposure, under-exposure, and other propaganda techniques (reframing, vicarious learning, and repeated affirmations). The long term effect is to create a delusional, distorted, and surrealistic vision of the world in the American psyche. This lecture is based on his recent book, Implosion: delusion, denial, and the prospect of collapse (previously titled Duped!)
