Notes-The Influencing Machine PDF

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Notes about the book. Save your time reading. Will be useful for in-class discussion....

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TIM P.57-70, 96-110 (75-88, 114-128) The Great Refusal - (P.57) President John Kennedy’s favourite quote: “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.”  no moral middle ground? Just two sides of an issue and we have to pick one? - (P.61) “the mainstream media quote far more conservatives than liberals - (p.61) eg the media are biased against presedents - (62) should instead worry abt commercial bias, bad news bias, status quo bias (tend to oppose change), ( - (64) access bias “Obviously, the biggest risk for access-dependent journalists is selfcensorship” - visual bias (pictures as visual hook) - narrative bias ( - fairness bias - * P.70 Objectivity - 96 new is a commodity like bread - 98 Adolph Ochs: without fear and favor, regardless of party, sect interest, …intensify the cause of sound money and tariff reform - unprofitable to ignore readers’ emotions, assumptions and values - 101 strangling objectivity - “True opinions can prevail only if the facts are known” - 102 “interpretive journalism” - facts validated but not interpreted The Golden Age of Objectivity - 103 “ The American media business is a creature o politics and technology.” - 105 “ The press plays gatekeeper, by defining and defending ‘the limits of acceptable political conduct” - 109 journalist can hold opinions but more important to SUPPRESS those when they work - “keep my mind open to the idea that my own view may be wrong.—be open-minded - I think that the media do not control our minds with the news. And it is possible that they plant some desires in us by advertisements, but the ultimate choiceAccording to Gladstone, "the news is a commodity like bread" (96).

Annotate The Influencing Machine P.111-156 (129-174) - 129: how reporters feel - 131: transparency is the objectivityreliability disclosure -132 create biases -135 blind you to the truth; prison or your mind; driven by impulses and biases; controlled by outside factors -145 photos and doc: easy to doubt/ disbelieve the truth -150: is google making us stupid Reporters ought to disclose their political stance so that they would sound more reliable to the public. For instance, “Time magazine’s James Poniewozik says political reporter should disclose their votes, and then disprove charges of bias by doing great journalism” (Gladstone, 114) Poniewoziks claims that if people are aware of the reporters political leaning, they can resist the biases presented in the news. Therefore, if all reporters disclose their personal opinions towards an issue that they report, the news that come out would be more objective. At the same time, less biased also means more trust-worthy to the general public since the original duty of reporters is to present facts to their readers so that they can take actions according to their wills. The more reporters disclose information about themselves to the public, the more objective and reliable the news is. Even though reporters disclose all the above information, the public do not read the news based on objectivity. “New consumers… choose news outlets that reflect their views.” (Gladstone, 115) Objectivity does not depend on what reporters deliver, but how the audience perceive it. Meanwhile, the majority of the public tend to choose the types of news that echo their point of view. For example, right-biased people will read FOX News in their everyday life. As they read the right-biased news from time to time, they will be even more biased. Even though reporters in FOX news disclose their votes, the general public already carry an affirming attitude before they read them. Therefore, disclosure does not necessarily lead to objectivity. It is the readers’ critical mind sets that matter. Reporters’ jobs are just to present the facts to their readers. The news could still be objective even though who reported it has a personal stance.

Argument: People are not aware of their own thoughts and therefore cannot control them. According to Gladstone, “our actions and belief are driven more by impulses and biases we never knew we had.” (117) For example, scientists can predict a person’s choice before he or she says it by watching live brain scans. This illustrates that people do not even know that they have made the decision until they receive signals from the brain. Based on the results, Gladstone denies the application of reason to the choices we make, which is simply driven by hormones in people’s brains. We all made decisions by impulse and it is there before we know it. People always assume they have critical and logical thinking, but the fact is they are not aware of all the information going through their brains. If it is impossible for us to manipulate our own thoughts, the media as well cannot do so. Counter-argument: Some may disagree with me, claiming that people may not be fully aware of their thoughts, but can actually manipulate them and show them through actions. According to Gladstone, “if we’re predisposed to believe the myths, we’ll actively avoid hearing contradictory information.” (122) It shows that people are aware enough to filter out the information they do not prefer to perceive. In an experiment, smokers tend to remove static when it comes to affirming information relating to smoking on a radio. Although they may not be fully aware of their bias, they can realize it later from their actions. Therefore, the media can actually control our minds to a certain extend. They can alter our behaviours, for instance by advertising frequently on the newspaper or social media platforms, so that our mind sets could change accordingly, which is having more intention to consume on unnecessary product that are advertised....