Bill Moyers has excellent coverage of how the Bush/Cheney government led a campaign of planting dis-information in the media in the run-up to the Iraq war. One example was how the aluminum tubes story was planted with Judith Miller for publication in the NY Times, with that story then being used as a reference by Cheney, Condi and others in TV appearances. The Niger connection was also fed to British Intelligence, which was then quoted as a source by Bush in a State of the Union address. These rumors have the memetic attributes you describe generally for rumors.
Television Spy
· 1 year ago
Interesting way to spread the rumors, the hardest part no doubt was getting people of notable respect and class to work for them.
Matt Keegan
· 1 year ago
Psychological warfare is interesting, but can it be monetized online today? I think that it can! ;-)
WWII was an interesting time, perhaps psychological warfare was the only way to win the battle or at least prop up morale.
Benj Arriola
· 1 year ago
Back in the 80's when the Internet was not used in every household, I live in the Philippines where I remember several popular rumors that I don't know how it spread and many were totally false. Most of them include so many granular details and it seems the rumor evolves as is spreads.
robert guinto
· 1 year ago
I am in agreement with the content, but would add that Words have more impact when words are linked to a visual action. Guilt by association has been the best example of linking a message to a visual action. The more a person remembers something over time the more likely the person will believe it is a true fact even when it is not.
Where the cartoons depicted in the links below are base on fact they are great examples of how a visual effect helps a person to remember.
Come join me on http://twitter.com/igorthetroll so we can defragment the society and start the next revolution..:) You can be Guevara and I will be Lenin.
Igor The Troll
· 1 year ago
Dan, that is what happens when you start spreading Rumors about yourself. ;-)
José
· 8 months ago
Hi,
Nowadays companies make alot of use of opinion makers and influencers, like well known personalities, to whom they offer their products or services. I should be a well knwon personality :-)
Kind regards,
José
jnewman1
· 1 month ago
Dan, Great research on rumors. Who would have known there was that much to be said. I really enjoyed this post.
All Comments
WWII was an interesting time, perhaps psychological warfare was the only way to win the battle or at least prop up morale.
Where the cartoons depicted in the links below are base on fact they are great examples of how a visual effect helps a person to remember.
These EMO cartoons provides another example of how to get a point of viewed to be remembered.
http://mynonprofitwebsite.com/blog/category/emo...
This nine year old cartoons are another example of getting a person to remember a point of view.
http://mynonprofitwebsite.com/blog/category/chr...
Nowadays companies make alot of use of opinion makers and influencers, like well known personalities, to whom they offer their products or services.
I should be a well knwon personality :-)
Kind regards,
José