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传媒类

1．宣传技术(propaganda techniques)

Today’s Advertising

Propaganda is not just the tool of totalitarian governments and dictators. Rather, propaganda is all around us—in the form of commercials and advertisements. The author of this selection shows how Madison Avenue uses many of the techniques typical of political propaganda to convince us that we need certain products and services.

American adults and children alike, are being seduced. They are being brainwashed. And few of us protest. Why? Because the seducers and the brain washers are the advertisers we willingly invite into our homes. We are victims, content—even eager—to be victimized. We read advertisers’ propaganda messages in newspapers and magazines; we watch their alluring images on the television. We absorb their messages and images into our subconscious. We all do it—even those of us who claim to see through advertisers’ tricks and therefore feel immune to advertisers’ charm. Advertisers lean heavily on propaganda to sell their products, whether the “products” are a brand of toothpaste, a candidate for office, or a particular political viewpoint.

Propaganda is a systematic effort to influence people’s opinions, to win them over to a certain view or side. Propaganda is not necessarily concerned with what is true or false, good or bad. Propagandists simply want people to believe the messages being sent. Often, propagandists will use outright lies or more subtle deceptions to sway people’s opinions. In a propaganda war, any tacit i s considered fair.

Indeed, the vast majority of us are targets in advertisers’ propaganda war. Every day, we are bombarded with slogans, print ads, commercials, packaging claims, billboards, trademarks, logos, and the designer brands-all forms of propaganda. One study reports that each of us, during an average day, is exposed to over five hundred advertising claims of various types. This saturation may even increase in the future since current trends include ads on movie screens, shopping carts, videocassettes, even public television.

Advertisers use seven types of propaganda techniques:

1)Name calling

Name calling is a propaganda tacit in which negatively charged names are hurled against the opposing side or competitor. By using such names, propagandists try to arouse the feeling of mistrust, fear, and hate in their audiences.

Political advisement may label an opposing candidate a “loser”, “fence-sitter”, or “warmonger”

Products: An American manufacturer may refer, for instance, to a “foreign car” in its commercial—not to a “imported” one. The label of foreignness will have unpleasant connotations on many people’s mind.

2)Glittering Generalities

Using glittering generalities is the opposite of name calling. In this case, advertisers surround their products with attractive--and slippery—words and phrases. They use vague terms that are difficult to define and that may have different meanings to different people: freedom, democratic, all-American, progressive, Christian, and justice. Many such words have strong, affirmative overtones. This kind of language stirs positive feelings in people, feelings that may spill over to the product or idea being pitched. As with the name calling, the emotional response may overwhelm logic. Target audiences accept the product without thinking very much about what the glittering generalities mean—or whether they even apply to the product. After all, how can anyone oppose “truth, justice, and the American way”?

Politics: The ads for politicians and political causes often use glittering generalities because such “buzz words” can influence votes. Election slogans include high-sounding but basically empty phrases.

Products: Ads for consumer goods are also sprinkles with glittering generalities. Product names, for instance, are supposed to evoke good feelings.

3)Transfer

In a transfer, advertisers try to improve the image of a product by associating it with a symbol most people respect, like the American flag or Uncle Sam. The advertisers hope that the prestige attached to the symbol will carry over to the product. Product: Lincoln Insurance shows a profile of the president; Continental Insurance portrays a Revolutionary war minuteman.

Corporations also use the transfer technique when they sponsor prestigious shows on radio and televisions. These shows function as symbols of dignity and class.

In this way, corporations can reach an educated, influential audience and, perhaps, improve their public image by associating themselves with quality programming. Politics: Ads for political candidate often show either the Washington Monument, a Fourth of July parade, the stars and Stripes, a bald eagle soaring over mountains, or a white-steepled church on the village green. The national anthem or “America the Beautiful” may play softly in the b ackground.

4）Testimonial

The testimonial is one of advertisers’ most-loved and most-used propaganda techniques. Similar to the transfer device, the testimonial capitalizes on the admiration

people have for celebrity to make the product shine more brightly—even though the celebrity is not an expert on the product being sold.

Print and television ads offer a nonstop parade of testimonials: here’s Cher for Holiday Spas; here’s basketball star Michael Jackson sings about Pepsi.

5)Plain forks

The plain folk s approach says, in effect, “Buy me or vote for me, I’m just like you.” And how do these folksy warmhearted (usually saccharine) scenes affect us? They’re supposed to make us feel that AT&T—the multinational corporate giant—has the same values as we do. Similarly, we are introduced to the little people at Ford, the ordinary folks who work on the assembly line, not to bigwigs in their executive offices. What’s the purpose of such an approach? To encourage us buy a car built by honest, hardworking “everyday Joes” who care about quality as much as we do. Politics: candidates wear hard hats, farmer caps, and assembly-line coveralls. They jog around the block and carry their own luggage through the airport. The idea is to convince people that the candidates are average people, not the elite—not wealthy lawyers or executives but the common citizen.

Bandwagon

use many people have deep desire not to de different.

Politics: Political ads tell us to vote for the “winning candidate.” The advertisers know we tend to feel comfortable doing what others do; we cant to be on the winning team. Or ads show a series of people proclaiming, “I’m voting for the Senator. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t.” Again, the audience feels under pressure to conform.

Why do these propaganda techniques work? Why do so many of us buy the products, viewpoints, and candidates urged on us by propaganda messages? They work because they appeal to our emotions, not to our minds. Often, in fact, they capitalize on our prejudices and biases. For example, if we are convinced that environmentalists are radicals who want to destroy America’s record of industrial growth and progress, then we will applaud the candidate who refers to them as “treehuggers.” Clear thinking requires hard work: analyzing a claim, researching the facts, examining both sides of an issue, using logic to see the flaws in an argument. Many of us would rather let the propagandists do our thinking for us.

Because propaganda is so effective, it is important to detect it and understand how it is used. We may conclude, after close examination, that some propaganda sents a truthful worthwhile message. Some advertising, for instance, urges us not to drive drunk, to become volunteers, to contribute to charity. Even so, we must be aware that propaganda is being used. Otherwise, we will have consented to handing over to others our independence of thought and action.

2. 电视瘾(TV addiction).

Unlike drugs or alcohol, the television experience allows the participant to blot out the real world and enter into a pleasurable and passive mental state. The worries and anxieties of reality are as effectively deferred by becoming absorbed in a television program as by going on a “trip” induced by drugs or alcohol.

In a way a heavy viewer’s life is as imbalanced by his television “habit” as a drug addict’s or an alcoholic’s. He is living in a holding pattern, as it were, passing up the activities that lead to growth or development or a sense of accomplishment. This is one reason people talk about their television viewing so ruefully, so apologetically. They are aware that it is an unproductive experience, that most any other endeavor is more worthwhile by any human measure.

The television habit distorts the sense of time. It renders other experiences vague and curiously unreal while taking on a greater reality for itself. It weakens relationships by reducing and sometimes eliminating normal opportunities for talking, for communicating.

The television viewer can never be sated with his television experiences—they do not provide the true nourishment that satiation requires—and thus he finds that he cannot stop watching.

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思想类

1.critical thinking

Critical thinking is a path to intellectual adventure. Though there are dozens of possible approaches, the progress can be boiled down to concrete steps.

Be willing to say “I don’t know”

Some of the most profound thinkers of our time have practiced the art o critical thinking by using two magic phrases: I don’t know and I am not sure yet.

Those are words many people do not like to hear. We live in times when people are criticized for changing their minds. Our society rewards quick answers and quotable “sound bites.” We’re under considerable pre ssure to utter the truth in 15 seconds or less

In such a society, it is a courageous and unusual act to pause, to look, to examine, to be thoughtful to consider many points o view--- and to not know. When a society embraces half-truths in a blind rush for certainty, commitment to uncertainty can move us forward.

Think again

When we use the base-three number system, two plus two equals 11. A child learning to write numbers might insist that two and two makes 22. And a biologist might joke that two plus two adds up to a whole lot more than four when we’re talking about the reproductive life for rabbits.

Define your terms

Practice tolerance

Having opinions about issues is natural. When you stop having opinions, you are probably not breathing anymore. The problem comes when we hold opinions in a way that leads to defensiveness, put-downs, or put-offs.

Going hand in hand with critical thinking is tolerance for attitudes that differs from yours. Consider that many of the ideas we currently accept—democracy, Christianity, voting rights for women, civil rights for people of color---were once considered the claims of “dangerous” and unpopular minorities. This historical perspective helps us accept a tenet of critical thinking: What seems outlandish today may become accepted a century, a decade, or even a year from now.

Understand before criticizing

Strictly speaking, none of us lives in the same world. Our habits, preferences, outlooks and values are as individual as our fingerprints. Each of them is shaped by our culture, our upbringing, our experience, and our choices. Speeches, books, articles, works for art, television programs, views expresses in conversation---all come from people who inhabit a different world than yours. Until we’ve lives in another person’s world for a while, it’s ineffective to dismiss her point of view.

Watch for hot spots

(hot spot: anger or discomfort when conversation shift to certain topics, such as death penalty or abortion)

To cool down your hot spots, seek out the whole world of ideas. Avoid intellectual ruts. Read magazines and books that challenge the opinions you currently hold. If you consider yourself liberal, pick up the National Review. If you are a socialist, sample the Wall Street Journal. Do the same with radio and television programs. Make a point to talk with people who differ from you in education level, race, ethnic group, or political affiliation. And to hone your thinking skills, practice defending an idea you consider outrageous.

Consider the source

Seek out alternative views

Dozens of viewpoints exist on every critical issue how to reduce crime, end world hunger, prevent war, educate our children, and countless others. In fact, few problems allow for any permanent solution. Each generation produces new answers, based on current conditions. Our research for answers is a conversation that spans centuries. On each question, many voices waiting to be heard. You can take advantage of this diversity by seeking out alternative viewpoints.

Ask questions

Stripped to this essence, critical thinking means asking and answering questions. If you want to practice this skill, get in the habit of asking powerful questions

Look for at least three answers

Using this approach can sustain honest inquiry, fuel creativity, and lead to conceptual breakthroughs.

Be prepared: The world is complicated, and critical thinking is a complex business. Some of your answers may contradict each other. Resist the temptation to have all your ideas in a neat, orderly bundle.

Be willing to change your mind

We should enter discussions with an open mind. When talking to another person, be willing to walk away with a new point of view---even if it’s the one you brought to the table. After thinking thoroughly, we can adopt new viewpoints or hold our current viewpoints in a different way.

Lay your cards on the table

Science and uncritical thinking differ in many ways. Uncritical thinkers shield themselves from new information and ideas. In contrast, scientists constantly look for facts that contradict their theories. In fact, science never proves anything once and for all. Scientific theories are tentative and subject to change. Scientists routinely practice critical thinking.

Examine the problems from different points of view

Sometimes new ideas are born when we view the world from a new angle. When early scientists watched the skies, they conclude that the sun revolved around the earth. Later, when we gained the mathematical tools to “stand” in another place, we could clearly see that the earth was revolving the sun. This change in position not only sparked new thinking, it permanently changes our picture of the universe.

Write about it

Thoughts move randomly at blind speed. Writing slows that process down. Doing so allows us to see all points of view on an issue more clearly and therefore thinking thoroughly. Writing is an unparalleled way to practice precise, accurate thinking. Construct a reasonable view