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Title : How to reach the Trumpers and the Fox News addicts
link : How to reach the Trumpers and the Fox News addicts
How to reach the Trumpers and the Fox News addicts
The "civility wars" have highlighted a larger question: How should we speak, if we wish to be heard by the kind of people who get their news from Fox? With kindness? With guile? Or with force?I doubt that any of you were around in 2004, when this blog began. But the message of this post bears repeating.
The post was inspired by the defunct (and missed) radio network Air America -- thus, when I speak of "this medium," I mean radio. The lesson, however, applies equally well to television and especially to internet's ongoing war of Troll Against Troll.
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Is it true -- as many have alleged -- that nuance has no place in this medium? Do listeners always prefer broadcasters who do their jobs with all the understated refinement of Conan the Barbarian?
The history of allied radio propaganda in Germany during World War II may provide an answer.
The allies faced a big problem: Any German caught listening to a broadcast unapproved by Goebbels could receive the death penalty. What was the best way to fetch an audience under those grim circumstances?
The British and the Americans decided upon a subtle approach. They put together German entertainment programs featuring music, comedy, and so forth. The broadcasts seemed to originate within the Third Reich. The news segments were pro-Hitler. But the broadcasts gingerly questioned the competence of Reich officials and emphasized wartime losses. The use of such understated methods would -- it was hoped -- slowly undermine confidence in Hitler's regime.
The Russians, by contrast, used "meat cleaver" tactics. No subtlety for them: They filled Germany's airwaves with incessant anti-Hitler rants, which took on a nearly hysterical tone. They also discovered ways to interrupt official Third Reich broadcasts with sneering commentary. They even heckled Hitler himself during his broadcast speeches.
Which form of propaganda worked best -- the subtle approach or the thuddingly obvious in-your-face approach?
Despite the risks, Germans listened to the Soviet harangues. Russia's propaganda campaign -- the verbal equivalent of a punch in the eye -- had far more impact than did the British and American equivalents.
The lessons for today are obvious. Anyone wishing to get a political message across through the use of the radio medium should take off the gloves and get ready for some bareknuckle brawling. Like it or not, that's what works.
I wish the situation were otherwise. I prefer more measured forms of discourse. But we have to take the audience as it is.
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