Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- propaganda_during_the_sars-cov-2_pandemic [2021/12/06 20:13]
robert Created the behavioural psychology piece
+++ — (current)
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-====== Propaganda During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic ======
-**[[Propaganda]] during the [[SARS-CoV-2 pandemic]]** has been shockingly powerful and well-organized.
-===== Behavioural Psychology =====
-There has been a huge amount of propaganda put out during the pandemic. This has emanated from all sides, but it’s been even more of an asymmetric situation than in previous times when the dominant narrative has been clearly false, such as in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion.
-This asymmetry is down to two novel factors and interlinked that have not played such a crucial role, at least in Western democracies in the recent past;
-  - Behavioural psychology and the science of ‘nudge’
-  - Widespread censorship
-Freud’s nephew, Edward Berney, literally wrote the book, Propaganda, in 1928, in which he says,
-//“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute and invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”//
-More recently, in Crisis and Leviathan, the American economic historian Robert Biggs identified ‘the ratchet effect’, pointing to the temporary or emergency measures put in place by the US government during or following WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, the Nixon-Johnson years, 9/11 and the 2008 global financial crisis, all caused the government to expand, and many survive to this day. Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government measure.
-In the UK, this sort of manipulation initially took the form of the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) who report into Number 10 and the Prime Minister. Their formation was first suggested in 2010, and in 2018, they released a report called [[https://www.bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/BIT-Behavioural-Government-Report-2018.pdf | Behavioural Government: Using Behavioural Science to Improve How Governments Make Decisions]] and another, more pertinent to what we’re seeing today, called [[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/744672/Improving_Peoples_Health_Behavioural_Strategy.pdf | Applying Behavioural and Social Sciences to Improving Population Health & Wellbeing in England]].
-On March 11, 2020, David Halpern, who heads up BIT, actually said we should cocoon the elderly until herd immunity is acquired, which sounds as sensible today as it did then. However, on March 22, a BIT sub-group, the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour (SPI-B) stated that,
-//…a substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened; it could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group, although levels of concern may be rising”.//
-The group therefore recommended that, //“the perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging.”//
-This led, among other things, to the infamous “Look Into Her Eyes” billboard campaign. Here, we had a close-up shot of the eyes of a terrified individual, always wearing an oxygen mask, and the headline was followed by “…and tell her why you won’t wear a mask” or variations on that theme. It was heavily criticised, especially for suggesting to recently bereaved children that yes, they may well have killed Grandma. At the time of writing, there appears to me no images of this campaign available online.
-BIT (also unofficially known as ‘the Nudge Unit’) has now morphed into a ‘social purpose limited company’ with offices in London, Manchester, Paris, New York, Singapore, Sydney, Wellington and Toronto. They ran over 750 projects in 31 countries in 2019 alone, and have trained over 20,000 civil servants around the world on the dark arts of behavioural insights.
-BIT is now one of several ‘nudge units’ that work across the UK government. These include;
-  * **Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU)** – part of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism – who focus on covertly engineer and effect “behavioural and attitudinal change” by funding chosen NGOs and grassroots organisations to produce supposedly grassroots multimedia campaigns.
-  * **The Rapid Response Unit** – based at Number 10, dedicated to move fast on social media to the “reclaiming of a fact-based public debate”.
-  * **Counter Disinformation Cell** – very similar to the Rapid Response Unit, both of whom work behind closed doors and are suspected to be behind much of the online censorship in the UK.
-  * **GCHQ** – the UK version of the NSA and engaged in a “cyberwar on anti-vaccine propaganda”. Technically, it’s only allowed to engage with foreign actors, not material originating from the UK.
-  * **The 77th Brigade** – part of the army engaged in ‘non-lethal’ forms of psychological warfare. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Head of Editorial (EMEA) at Twitter, [[https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/twitter-executive-also-part-time-officer-uk-army-psychological-warfare-unit | Gordon MacMillan]], is a part time officer with the 77th Brigade.
-  * **Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour (SPI-B)**, mentioned earlier, who focus on providing “behavioural science advice aimed at anticipating and helping people to adhere to interventions that are recommended by medical or epidemiological experts.” Initially the make-up of this group was held secret under the rubric of ‘national security’; now it’s open, we see that it includes no disaster recovery specialists, no risk management experts, and on one considering the psychology of risk.
-These are just the 'nudge units' we know about operating within the UK government. It is safe to assume there are more that we don't know about, and that every government around the world has their own versions of these.
-**NB I am deeply indebted to material provided by Laura Dodsworth in her 2021 book, [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Fear-government-weaponised-Covid-19/dp/1780667205/ref=sr_1_1?crid=26ANDBNDOX0E6&keywords=a+state+of+fear+laura+dodsworth&qid=1638817728&s=books&sprefix=a+state+%2Caps%2C156&sr=1-1 | "A State of Fear: How the UK Government Weaponised Fear During the Covid-19 Pandemic"]].**
-===== Mark Crispin Miller interviews on A Propaganda Masterpiece: =====
-[[https://www.thepressandthepublic.com/post/2020-a-propaganda-masterpiece]] Part I
-[[https://www.thepressandthepublic.com/post/perspectives-on-the-pandemic-xviii]] Part II
-[[https://rokfin.com/post/52304|Podcast]]
-Asch's Experiment:
-[[https://youtu.be/TYIh4MkcfJA]]
-The Origins of the American Public Education System:
-[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZp7eVJNJuw]]
-Montage of narrative spinning:
-[[https://twitter.com/jamesmelville/status/1461750873445568515?s=21]]
-===== Corporate MEDIA Misinformation =====
-"Trusted News Initiative (TNI) to combat spread of harmful vaccine disinformation and announces major research project
-At a recent summit chaired by the BBC’s new Director General, Tim Davie, the Trusted News Initiative (TNI) agreed to focus on combatting the spread of harmful vaccine disinformation.
-Examples include widely shared memes which link falsehoods about vaccines to freedom and individual liberties. Other posts seek to downplay the risks of coronavirus and suggest there is an ulterior motive behind the development of a vaccine.
-Whilst it is important to scrutinise the science behind new Covid-19 vaccines and give voice to legitimate concerns from people wondering what a coronavirus vaccine means for them, questions about levels of immunity and whether a vaccine is appropriate for those with chronic health conditions, it is vital that audiences know they can turn to sources they trust for accurate, impartial information.
-TNI partners will alert each other to disinformation which poses an immediate threat to life so content can be reviewed promptly by platforms, whilst publishers ensure they don’t unwittingly republish dangerous falsehoods.
-The TNI is already working together to tackle to spread of harmful coronavirus disinformation and previously has had success running a rapid alert system during the UK 2019 General Election, Myanmar and Taiwan 2020 General Elections and the US Presidential Election.
-The Trusted News Initiative (TNI) was set up last year to protect audiences and users from disinformation, particularly around moments of jeopardy, such as elections. The TNI complements existing programmes partners have in place.
-The partners currently within the TNI are: AP, AFP; BBC, CBC/Radio-Canada, European Broadcasting Union (EBU),Facebook, Financial Times, First Draft, Google/YouTube, The Hindu, Microsoft , Reuters, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Twitter, The Washington Post."
-https://web.archive.org/web/20201210102555/https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2020/trusted-news-initiative-vaccine-disinformation
-While other billionaires’ media empires are relatively well known, the extent to which Gates’s cash underwrites the modern media landscape is not. After sorting through over 30,000 individual grants, MintPress can reveal that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has made over $300 million worth of donations to fund media projects.
-Recipients of this cash include many of America’s most important news outlets, including CNN, NBC, NPR, PBS and The Atlantic. Gates also sponsors a myriad of influential foreign organizations, including the BBC, The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom; prominent European newspapers such as Le Monde (France), Der Spiegel (Germany) and El País (Spain); as well as big global broadcasters like Al-Jazeera.
-The Gates Foundation money going towards media programs has been split up into a number of sections, presented in descending numerical order, and includes a link to the relevant grant on the organization’s website.
-Awards Directly to Media Outlets -
-NPR- $24,663,066
-The Guardian (including TheGuardian.org)- $12,951,391
-Cascade Public Media – $10,895,016
-Public Radio International (PRI.org/TheWorld.org)- $7,719,113
-The Conversation- $6,664,271
-Univision- $5,924,043
-Der Spiegel (Germany)- $5,437,294
-Project Syndicate- $5,280,186
-Education Week – $4,898,240
-WETA- $4,529,400
-NBCUniversal Media- $4,373,500
-Nation Media Group (Kenya) – $4,073,194
-Le Monde (France)- $4,014,512
-Bhekisisa (South Africa) – $3,990,182
-El País – $3,968,184
-BBC- $3,668,657
-CNN- $3,600,000
-KCET- $3,520,703
-Population Communications International (population.org) – $3,500,000
-The Daily Telegraph – $3,446,801
-Chalkbeat – $2,672,491
-The Education Post- $2,639,193
-Rockhopper Productions (U.K.) – $2,480,392
-Corporation for Public Broadcasting – $2,430,949
-UpWorthy – $2,339,023
-Financial Times – $2,309,845
-The 74 Media- $2,275,344
-Texas Tribune- $2,317,163
-Punch (Nigeria) – $2,175,675
-News Deeply – $1,612,122
-The Atlantic- $1,403,453
-Minnesota Public Radio- $1,290,898
-YR Media- $1,125,000
-The New Humanitarian- $1,046,457
-Sheger FM (Ethiopia) – $1,004,600
-Al-Jazeera- $1,000,000
-ProPublica- $1,000,000
-Crosscut Public Media – $810,000
-Grist Magazine- $750,000
-Kurzgesagt – $570,000
-Educational Broadcasting Corp – $506,504
-Classical 98.1 – $500,000
-PBS – $499,997
-Gannett – $499,651
-Mail and Guardian (South Africa)- $492,974
-Inside Higher Ed.- $439,910
-BusinessDay (Nigeria) – $416,900
-Medium.com – $412,000
-Nutopia- $350,000
-Independent Television Broadcasting Inc. – $300,000
-Independent Television Service, Inc. – $300,000
-Caixin Media (China) – $250,000
-Pacific News Service – $225,000
-National Journal – $220,638
-Chronicle of Higher Education – $149,994
-Belle and Wissell, Co. $100,000
-Media Trust – $100,000
-New York Public Radio – $77,290
-KUOW – Puget Sound Public Radio – $5,310
-https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-show-bill-gates-has-given-319-million-to-media-outlets/278943/
-===== Manipulation of Language =====
-Cure changed in Merriam-Webster (find link) likely to make early treatment medicines look ineffective.
-Definition of vaccine changed in January such that it includes mRNA and DNA based products.
-Definition of herd immunity [[https://www.aier.org/article/who-deletes-naturally-acquired-immunity-from-its-website/|changed by WHO]].
-[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw9Ci2PZKZg|How Cases Are Being Counted]]
-===== Manipulation of Science =====
-[[Surgisphere]]
-=====Celebrity Propaganda=====
-From humble beginnings on "A" Late Show to a glorious conclusion on "The" Late Show, we hope you will enjoy this romp through every single frame of Stephen Colbert's longrunning educational segment, Well known songs adapted to pro-vaccine skits. "The Vax-Scene." #TheVaxScene #Colbert #TheLateShow
-https://web.archive.org/web/20210623074706/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSkFyNVtNh8
-===== Pushback Against COVID-19 Pandemic Propaganda =====
-==== Pushback from Physicians ====
-Irish doctors speak out: https://www.theirishchannel.com/the-irish-doctors-are-speaking-out/