Welcome to the information age. We live in an era that thrives on knowledge, and conveniently we have countless ways to acquire it. "News", as we like to call it, is information on current events which we absorb through the Internet, print, broadcast, or word of mouth to an audience. When it comes to the quest for information I am just as guilty as the next student who is trying to get by in a Media Studies course. On my computer I have links saved to Websites such as Dan McTeague's gas price updates, The Toronto Star, The Weather Network, Facebook, and The Onion - America's 'Finest' News Source. I trust the information that is being relayed to me...but why? I always thought that it was the duty of a technological society to keep its citizens updated, to let the people know what is affecting them on a daily basis. Again, that's what I thought, until I read a book by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton.
Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry examines PR, and reveals "how public relations wizards concoct and spin the news, organize phony "grassroots" front groups, and conspire with lobbyists and politicians to thwart democracy." (Rampton and Stauber) Concoct? Phony? Thwart? Those are some hostile words, are they not? The authors combine to reveal a series of interesting case studies revolving around the public relations industry and its continuous efforts to provide the world with 'fake news'. The most prominent example that I can think of from the book comes in the form of a comic strip.
Cartoonist Dan Perkins has a comic strip under his pen name, Tom Tomorrow. Called "This Modern World", the comic is a satire of current news. Toxic Sludge is Good For You! placed one of Tom's comics in the first chapter of the book, "Burning Books Before They're Printed." The comic (seen above) outlines a three step process that public relations experts follow in order to sell a message to society. To summarize the four images, the corporations are tired of complaints involving toxic sludge being dumped into water supplies. To 'solve' this 'problem', the corporations decide to manipulate the opinions of the mass population by using various forms of media. By the end of the comic, the people who once complained about toxic sludge agree that they were "silly" to ever think that drinking toxic sludge could be harmful to them. Tom Tomorrow takes events occurring in society and spins them into witty humour; he has taken the role of the PR professional and pointed out how real, yet how absurd their profession is.
As more of a visual learner, images tend to catch my attention much quicker than the written word. This visual example caught my eye in just the first chapter, which encouraged me to read further into the PR industry and uncover what the authors call a "twisted reality". Examples in society like the toxic sludge comic are what fake news is all about, taking facts and throwing a thick blanket over them. As individuals who thrive on knowledge, we don't see the truth. After all, when handled effectively fake news appears to be fact in the eyes of the people. Unfortunately, all that we really see are "lies, damn lies, and the public relations industry." PR is estimated to be paid $10 billion a year in the United States (Rampton and Stauber 13). With number like that I better not see the truth.
Works Cited
Stauber, John C., and Sheldon Rampton. Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. Monroe, MA: Common Courage Press, 1995.
Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry examines PR, and reveals "how public relations wizards concoct and spin the news, organize phony "grassroots" front groups, and conspire with lobbyists and politicians to thwart democracy." (Rampton and Stauber) Concoct? Phony? Thwart? Those are some hostile words, are they not? The authors combine to reveal a series of interesting case studies revolving around the public relations industry and its continuous efforts to provide the world with 'fake news'. The most prominent example that I can think of from the book comes in the form of a comic strip.
Cartoonist Dan Perkins has a comic strip under his pen name, Tom Tomorrow. Called "This Modern World", the comic is a satire of current news. Toxic Sludge is Good For You! placed one of Tom's comics in the first chapter of the book, "Burning Books Before They're Printed." The comic (seen above) outlines a three step process that public relations experts follow in order to sell a message to society. To summarize the four images, the corporations are tired of complaints involving toxic sludge being dumped into water supplies. To 'solve' this 'problem', the corporations decide to manipulate the opinions of the mass population by using various forms of media. By the end of the comic, the people who once complained about toxic sludge agree that they were "silly" to ever think that drinking toxic sludge could be harmful to them. Tom Tomorrow takes events occurring in society and spins them into witty humour; he has taken the role of the PR professional and pointed out how real, yet how absurd their profession is.
As more of a visual learner, images tend to catch my attention much quicker than the written word. This visual example caught my eye in just the first chapter, which encouraged me to read further into the PR industry and uncover what the authors call a "twisted reality". Examples in society like the toxic sludge comic are what fake news is all about, taking facts and throwing a thick blanket over them. As individuals who thrive on knowledge, we don't see the truth. After all, when handled effectively fake news appears to be fact in the eyes of the people. Unfortunately, all that we really see are "lies, damn lies, and the public relations industry." PR is estimated to be paid $10 billion a year in the United States (Rampton and Stauber 13). With number like that I better not see the truth.
Works Cited
Stauber, John C., and Sheldon Rampton. Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. Monroe, MA: Common Courage Press, 1995.
1 comment:
"Examples in society like the toxic sludge comic are what fake news is all about, taking facts and throwing a thick blanket over them. As individuals who thrive on knowledge, we don't see the truth."
Great point throughout your post about why this kind of fake news can be so good for PR firms, and so bad for us.
Lana
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