YOUR SEMANTICS TIP FOR THE DAY
If you will notice, all major networks are stating that those killed by the "coalition" (read United States Military) are INSURGENTS.
What is and insurgent? It is someone who rebels against his own political party OR (presumably illegally) rebels against a legitimate government.
You may have noticed two things about Iraq;
#1, the Baath party has been toppled. No Baathists (or anyone else for that matter) are therefore rebelling against it.
#2, There IS NO legitimate government in Iraq.
Why then are all media outlets referring to those killed as "insurgents"? The answer is simple. Semantics.
Semantics is used a lot in advertising as well as propaganda. It basically says that words can be conveyers of emotions as well as ideas. By carefully choosing the words you use to describe an event or person, you can emotionally contextualize it to the recipient of the message.
COALITION FORCES KILL 100 INSURGENTS sounds a lot better than US ARMY KILLS 100 IRAQIS. Do you see? The latter kind of headline, repeated day in and day out, might get average people to wondering, "gee, why are we killing so many Iraqis? Aren't we there to save them from people like Saddam who wanted to kill them?"
I urge all of you to study Lippman. He wrote a peice called "The Phantom Public" just before WWII. He basically said that the public are so stupid and easilly swayed by any propaganda, that they must be kept out of descision making. Was he a lone nut? NOPE, he worked for the government, was the father of general semantics theory, and is also considered to be the "father of modern journalism"
Pay attention people. Question everything.
If you will notice, all major networks are stating that those killed by the "coalition" (read United States Military) are INSURGENTS.
What is and insurgent? It is someone who rebels against his own political party OR (presumably illegally) rebels against a legitimate government.
You may have noticed two things about Iraq;
#1, the Baath party has been toppled. No Baathists (or anyone else for that matter) are therefore rebelling against it.
#2, There IS NO legitimate government in Iraq.
Why then are all media outlets referring to those killed as "insurgents"? The answer is simple. Semantics.
Semantics is used a lot in advertising as well as propaganda. It basically says that words can be conveyers of emotions as well as ideas. By carefully choosing the words you use to describe an event or person, you can emotionally contextualize it to the recipient of the message.
COALITION FORCES KILL 100 INSURGENTS sounds a lot better than US ARMY KILLS 100 IRAQIS. Do you see? The latter kind of headline, repeated day in and day out, might get average people to wondering, "gee, why are we killing so many Iraqis? Aren't we there to save them from people like Saddam who wanted to kill them?"
I urge all of you to study Lippman. He wrote a peice called "The Phantom Public" just before WWII. He basically said that the public are so stupid and easilly swayed by any propaganda, that they must be kept out of descision making. Was he a lone nut? NOPE, he worked for the government, was the father of general semantics theory, and is also considered to be the "father of modern journalism"
Pay attention people. Question everything.
great post. i think i'll copy it and mail it to everyone i know. especially to all my idiot relatives who keep sending me the gung-ho-kill-em-all-let-god-sort-em-out-love-it-or-leave-it bullshit.