Scottish inventor John Logi Barid gave the first demonstration of television 100 years ago this month. He built on the work of others. Russian scientist Constantin Perskyi presented a paper on television at the International World Fair in Paris in 1900, and he is credited with coining the term. Though it wasn’t until the 1950’s that television started to become more common place in people’s homes. Anyone who grew up in the 1960’s and 70s will remember having only three TV channels to choose from. Channel 4 only started in 1982, and Channel 5 in 1997. Today with satellite and streaming services we have a daunting array of choice. That choice has also brought about social siloing. When I was at school in the 1970’s and 80’s just about everyone was watching the same programmes at the same time. But now if you are watching a series on TV, you need to check with your friends what episode they are up to before you can even talk to them about it. In the UK adults watch on average between 2 and 4 hours of television every day. It is a ubiquitous form of mass-communication. Of course it isn’t our only one, we have radio, podcasts, YouTube, and all other types of social media, including Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter, as everyone seems to describe it), and of course newspapers, magazines, and books. Today many people thirst for knowledge, but everyone is drowning in information.
New methods of mass-communication have always been quickly adopted by people who seek to influence us about world events and how they think, we should think. Julius Caesar wrote books about his campaigns in Gaul using a simple style of Latin, so that he could keep his supporters abreast of his exploits whilst he was away from Rome. The Nazis used mass rallies, radio, and film in the 1930s. American President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the radio to deliver Fireside Chats with the American public, to help frame his policies and persuade the American people to support him through the challenges of the 1930’s and 40s. John F Kennedy used television to great effect in the 1960 US Presidential campaign. Kennedy appeared youthful, and clean shaven, in contrast to the, only slightly older Richard Nixon. In their first debate Nixon wore a light grey suit which blended into the background, and had refused makeup, which meant that his dark stubble showed up clearly in the black and white broadcast. Then he started to sweat under the studio lights. After the debate his mother even called him to ask if he was sick. Donald Trump used influential podcasters, like Joe Rogan during the 2024 Presidential campaign, helping to get his message out to young men in particular.
But we should be on our guard when people are using mass media of any kind to influence us. Deception is often woven into the message. I have just finished reading about Operation Mincemeat. The Allied deception run on the Nazis in World War II. Its objective was to get the Nazis to believe that, instead of invading Italy through the island of Sicily, which was the actual plan, that the real Allied landing would be in Greece, followed by a thrust through the Balkans. The deception was run by dropping a body dressed in military uniform off the Spanish coast with ‘secret letters’ in a briefcase. A highly elaborate plan that the Nazis should never have fallen for, but they did. The reason they did was because the fake plan matched Hitler’s pre-existing ideas about what he thought the Allies would do. This is exactly what we need to watch out for from influencers form of mass media. Because social media algorithms, and even TV streaming services drive us into content that matches our previous viewing, our own biases can get reflected back at us in an echo chamber. So how do we manage our way through this. First of all what we need to do is understand ourselves better, how do we think, what are our own preferences, and blind spots. Then we can start to look at other people and their opinions more objectively. You may not agree with what someone says or how they say it, but there still may be something useful in their perspective. We also need to develop our own critical thinking skills, so that we can more easily see the logical and psychological fallacies in people’s thinking. All of these things are benefits from doing a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) course. I have said for years that doing an NLP training is an inoculation against the inappropriate use of manipulation on you.
“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” Winston Churchill
