Schemat przedstawiający popularne techniki manipulacji w mediach. Zapoznaj się z elementami schematu. Popular manipulation techniques in the media. 1. Playing on people’s heartstrings. Headlines that evoke deep negative or positive feelings (like anger or compassion) in readers, indicate the will to manipulate them. For example: “A Polish child has not been accepted to a German school!”. And maybe the child did not know the language well enough, and would not be able to cope with the material? 2. Questioning. Using questions in headlines, for example “Does the government want to forbid the citizens to leave for EU states?” makes the reader alarmed, and later in the article the author describes how the law would limit all citizens. It is not until the end of the article, when he clarifies, that the government has no plans of that kind - the reader will remember that the threat is there anyway. 3. Opinion polls. When the poll is carried out on a small sample of people it is not credible. Headlines like “87% of Poles support the government” is manipulative, if the article mentions casually, that the poll was run on a group of 100 people. 4. „Foreign newspapers write…”. This kind of manipulation uses our complexes. If we are being talked about abroad it has to be taken seriously. Not necessarily! Often the foreign media use Polish journalist and their opinions – it is a common and effective method to confuse people. Later the Polish journalists often use headlines like “Foreign press says, that X happened”. Double check information like this in different sources. 5. Taking out of the context. Headline reads: X said “I can’t imagine my child attending a German school”. When in reality X said “I can’t imagine my child attending a German school, if he did not spoke German well enough”. Taking the part out of the context gives the reader a completely different impression, doesn’t it? Manipulation like this one is often used in the media and in political debate. 6. Capslock. SHOCK! UNBELIEVABLE! URGENT! BREAKING NEWS! SCANDAL! – headlines using big, screaming letters usually have only one purpose: to provoke the reader to click the link. 7. Outright lies. The worst kind of manipulation is making up a lie, publishing it, and allowing it to be repeated by all the TV stations, journalists etc. After 12 hours the lie is removed on the demand of the person being attacked. The case goes to court, the trial lasts forever, and the dementi is published in small print. And the readers… only remember the lie. Based on: A.J. Wichura, Techniki manipulacji w mediach – część 1, www.czlowiek.info