Misinformation
This blog post is about information, disinformation and misinformation. We will go step wise thru the process of how we have gone from the information age to become the misinformation and disinformation age. In the late 1960’s, the computer was the start of the Information Age. It began in the mid-20th century with radio and television. Later the computer. It was characterized by a shift from traditional industries, as established during the Industrial Revolution, to an economy centered on information technologies.
Prior to radio and television, we had the news papers. During the news paper era, spreading information, disinformation and misinformation was a bit more difficult. With radio, we could hear it. As television programming developed we could see it much like the movies. We had entertainment programs like “I love Lucy”. The show writers and actors learned how to make shows a bit addictive. Some shows flopped (bad writing and acting). The TV stations and advertisers decided by money which shows were more addictive. Thus began the daily Soap Operas that addicted housewives to the shows to sell soap and detergents.
Loss of the news high ground
The news had a high ground in keeping to just information. The FCC had control with a rule called the “Fairness Doctrine”. If the national TV stations posted disinformation and misinformation. They would loose their license to broadcast. Therefore the end of their revenue and business. Reporters and news were held to a very high standard. So we come to Step 1.
For those who have read my discourse about Ronald Reagan. He did the first step in his administration of removing the FCC “Fairness Doctrine”. The next step number two was the rise of media types like ‘Rush Limbaugh‘. He posed as a conservative but was using anger and fear to make people angry and mad. In psychology, we learn that anger causes your body to release adrenaline. Adrenaline is released as a fight or flight hormone that drowns out our high brain functions. It also makes us feel powerful when we feel a threat like a lion jumping out to attack us. In small doses anger is addictive. It also causes your logical thinking to shut down over time.
Our higher Brain functions shut down with anger
This brings us to step number three. Ira J. Roseman Ph.D. came up with a studies on motive consistent and motive inconsistent logic. Anger has many causes, we see people and circumstances causing us pain. Anger is a motive inconsistent emotion as we see people and circumstances causing us to not get what we want. Therefore, we feel strong, but we did not get what we want! This is the paper:
Roseman, I. J. (1984). Cognitive determinants of emotions: A structural
theory. In P. Shaver (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology
(Vol. 5, pp. 11–36). Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE.
I read this paper in my counseling psychology classes. It profoundly changed how I acted. However, for most people they slowly lose the high brain logic functions due to anger.
In Step three in the use of disinformation and misinformation
Fox news and others news/media an organizational people like Fox News, Alex Jones and Steve Bannon found citing opinions of disinformation and misinformation caused anger in listeners. Starting with Reagan messing up the American economy. Many people are angry at the environment they are in now. Consequentially, their ratings went up as did the flow of money from advertisers like Exxon and soap sellers.
Using disinformation and misinformation
Ronald Reagan with his acting skills used disinformation and misinformation very well. With his nice sales voice he told stories of welfare queens that were believable. He is not the first, nor will he be the last one to use these tools. The lines of king, dictators, tyrants and even good rulers have used these tools going back in time in the history books. You just have to find history books that go into this detail. Just about every authoritarian type ruler depends on these informational tools. In the 20th century, they were able to figure out a nice playbook for using bad information to their advantage. They create the strong man image, use it to manipulate the masses with it. Your anger to bypass your high logic brain functions is their gift to make you a minion.
So what coping skills are needed
Motive-Consistency vs. Inconsistency emotions determines whether we allow More vs. Less of Stimuli that make us anger or happy. The most fundamental determination about coping with any event or situation is whether to seek more or less of it. Thus our emotion feelings of anger or happiness this is determined by our appraisal of events that causes us anger or happiness. The question we need to ask then concerns our own emotions. Are we feeling consistent or inconsistent with a desired outcome of events?
What this means, we need to develop better coping skills where we are able to analyze our emotions. This is called developing emotional intelligence. There are several keys, one stay out of anger, two control the stimulation from media, three seek enjoyment and lastly stay away from behaviors that scare or anger you.
Hope this helps with coping with the next four years.
References:
Ira Roseman and his associates have been busy studying emotions since I read his first paper in 1994. Here is the link to his newer research. I highly recommend his papers.
https://crab.rutgers.edu/users/roseman/Roseman.2013.AppraisalInTheEmotionSystem.pdf
Also as a good starting point, I suggest this book.
Lastly, studying what others have written on Authoritarian rulers. Here is a short list Anne Applebaum, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Hannah Arendt, Dr. John Gartner, Dr. Harry Segel, and Timothy Snyder. Fair warning, the study of emotional psychology can bring up many feelings we have either repressed or we are unaware of. Get help if needed.