Information Management

Any educator will acknowledge that the selection, control, framing, and method of information delivery is key to learning. Effective teaching involves the art and science of information management. A true artist teaches people without their even being aware, the process at times seems almost effortless to the recipient of the information.

Yesterday, I was involved in a Whitehouse discussion group on the topic of the economy. One of the participants displayed behaviors that disrupted the flow and productivity of genuine information flow. The topic, and any thoughts or ideas related to it, were steered fatally off-track. Other members of the group were disturbed and frustrated by these behaviors, the discussion was dropped, and participants began to examine the problem of the disruptor.

A few of the guys determined that her problem was narcissism, and they have a point. I saw similarities in her behavior to these, as defined by Cynthia Boaz, "FOX "News" Propaganda Techniques...Brainwashing the American Public." Her article can be found at Alternet.

http://www.alternet.org/story/151497/


1. Panic mongering
2. Character assassination/Ad Hominem
3. Projection/Flipping
4. Rewriting History
5. Scapegoating/Othering
6. Conflating violence with power and Opposition to violence with weakness
7. Bullying
8. Confusion
9. Populism
10. Invoking the Christian God
11. Saturation
12. Disparaging education
13. Guilt by association
14. Diversion

Whether or not it is an intentional program of indoctrination, or merely a learned and accepted practice on the part of the FOX News organization, the behaviors that they practice, model, and teach on a regular and unrelenting basis do have consequences. Whether their audience and believers know it or not, they are absorbing the counterproductive behaviors and "learning methods" of those sources to which they are continually exposed.

I encourage you to seek information from a variety of sources, and to practice and model behaviors that you would appreciate in others.

more on this topic this week: Making Up Stories: Perceptions, Language, and the Web, http://t.co/aQWBjhX by Elizabeth McGuane/Randall Snare http://www.alistapart.com/articles/making-up-stories-perception-language-and-the-web/