Media Discourse & Psychological warfare

 

Mossad agent said, “We are a global production company, we write the screenplay, we’re the directors, we’re the producers, we’re the main actors.  The world is our stage.”

The power of media

1. Media teaches you
   1. What to focus on
   2. How to look at an event
   3. How to react
2. Consensus Building – Usually to give legitimacy to the status quo or people in power.
3. Media Control means you get close to the ruling elites.
4. Creating Chaos – Psychological warfare
   1. First world war
      1. Fall of the Khilafah
      2. Rupture of relations between components of the Muslim Ummah happened because of psychological warfare.
      3. They sent historians and archeologists to Iraq and Syria. They learnt everything. They drew a military map with the entire terrain of the country.
      4. Sun Tsu – To subdue the enemy. To bring the enemy to your will, without war, is the epitome of war.
   2. Second world war
      1. Mosaddegh
was brought in to establish Democracy
      2. He planned to bring the natural resources under national control to get a fair share for the Iranian people from the international companies.
      3. New York Times that wrote “Mosaddegh
is a fanatical nationalist.   The coup will strengthen the hands of more reasonable leaders.”
      4. Military coup to bring in the Shah of Iran by the CIA. London Time said “He will bring the enlightened modernity.” This is the chaos and phycological warfare of the media.
      5. Direct threat to anyone who want to nationalize their resources.
   3. 1990s
      1. No more information warfare, but information dominance.
      2. Media is planned before wars – what will be said and shown to the public.
      3. Everyone must be singing the same tune.
   4. 2010s
      1. Social became a major player to mobilize people.
      2. AI generated content. Algorithms are tilted towards Israel.
      3. The evolution of war [From War and Anti-War: Alvin and Haley Toffler]
         1. 2 Centuries ago: Wars for Land
         2. 1 Century ago: Wars for production facilities
         3. Today: Wars for the control of minds and perceptions.

The battle for hearts and minds

1. The Ruling Elites
   1. They need tools to transmit values and make them common to all people.
   2. They need a means to control people.
   3. The schooling system will never give you the tricks of the trade.
   4. Nationalistic governments are aware of society, and active in defending their interests.
   5. Others are just a continuation of colonial policies.
   6. We need to be sophisticated and nuanced.
   7. Without Critical Media Scholarship, you will never understand how the media works.
   8. This “Other Side” of media, will not be taught in universities.
   9. Media is owned by business interests, and they don’t want to displease the government.
   10. Advertisers will quit if they see anti-system or anti-government etc.
2. The office of Strategic Influence
   1. Created by the Pentagon.
   2. To counter Islam in the name of ending Political Islam.
   3. To create division and dissention amongst the Muslims.
   4. Sometimes narratives come about and we are not aware of it’s source.
   5. We must be aware of these hidden forces.
3. Media is available on every device today

   1. Learn and train others
   2. Media framing
   3. How to navigate narratives.
   4. How to tackle disinformation.
   5. How media is affecting ummatic sentiment.
   6. How to consume media and interact with it.
4. Sources
   1. You need to interview people.
   2. Their is a class called the authorized knowers.
   3. If they are not authorized, they will not feature.
   4. If they criticize – They will get problems, IRS, harass you, silence you.
5. Newsrooms carry ideologies
   1. Capitalism
   2. Orientalism
   3. Fear and Hatred of Islam

 

Dehumanizing Language

 

Palestine

1. Israel has a Gen Z problem
   1. Psychological power is eroding.
   2. Al-Jazeera is providing good coverage of the war.
   3. Hasbara – They are taking big hits at the moment.
2. Israeli contradictions
   1. We are the victims of genocide, while they are performing a genocide.
   2. They are barbaric. We are peaceful – No rules, killing doctors and journalists.
   3. The loss of the higher moral ground.
   4. Unprofessionalism – Fake footage, lies, censorship, lynching, silencing, harassment.
   5. They lied about a place without a people. “A paradise in the desert.”
3. Perpetual War
   1. They are pushing for perpetual war, which means they can only have more enemies, not less.
4. Sectarianism
   1. Part of psychological warfare.
   2. Was never a big deal.
   3. Divide and Conquer is their golden rule – When united, they is no chance.
   4. They put this team against that team, even if they are all Pro-Palestinian.
   5. The Turks and Arabs fought against the British Army and the British were defeated.  The British sent people to find the weak points in the army, but they couldn’t.
5. We can make them fail, if there is more resolve
   1. It has to have roots on the ground and based upon truth.
   2. More mobilization. More interest in Palestinian rights.
   3. We have brilliant minds, but mostly individual efforts which don’t count.
   4. Even propaganda doesn’t work without a concerted effort from large organizations.
   5. We are fighting the wars of the past.  We have to at forefront of the AI revolution.  Train people in those fields.
   6. We have to teach these principles to others.  We have to teach people how to stand and to resist and to fight back.
   7. We started being sloppy.  We have to be effective.

 

 

Power is essentially psychological.

The elite will tell the media how they want to appear.

psychological warfare can be more effective than physical war.

Used to subdue the enemy without a physical fight.

Creates a psychological relationship between those who exercise it and those upon whom it is exercised.

Nationalizing the natural resources – Mossadegg. Anyone who wants to democratize.

Democratize the real benefits the public.

Information Dominance means the media control is part of the war plan. Driven by the Pentagon.

Office of Strategic influence – To challenge Political Islam. We must be aware of this and create awareness amongst ourselves.

They have a strategy and that are releasing info daily.

School system and media is used to control the society by the elites.

Certain news will never make it to the public

Only counts when its a concerned effort from a formidable enemy.

Have to be divided. United, no chance.

Media always promoting the dissentions, until the cause is collapsed.

Consensus – Ceremonial coverage like state funerals, sprots events, creating consensus on shared experiences

Elites spread their control of economic resources to their control of the cultural apparatuses of media, including propaganda and public relations.

Contradiction – Enforcer and challenger of the status quo

Chaos – The spreading of chaos

Politics is the pursuit and excercise of power

To threaten: You need intent and capability

Foreign Direct Investment is used to control the economy and politics.

 

 

 

You can challenge a personal narrative or conceptual narrative, but not a meta narrative. Terrorism is a meta-narrative.

61% of the word massacre, slaughter, when it comes to Israeli’s. Use of language, headlines, framing, images. Journalistic translations, when the same event is narrated in two different languages.

Language and Narrative is a powerful tool used to set an agenda.

You think in the language, culture is in language.

Socialogy – 4 Narratives of hegemony of Capitalism, of one’s perception of oneself and others.

Personal narrative – Your view, You conception of yourself and the other. where you are, where you fit, what you believe.

Public – Circulate within a group and entertained and promoted and circulated and defended.

Conceptual narrative – Academics, professionals, elites.

Meta narrative – Rare, Progress, Terrorism. So influential that it cannot be easily ignored.

Do you condemn Hamas, is a question supported by the meta narrative?

Dehumanization

They distort the narrative, to shift the blame and preserve their image and their ego. So they don’t have to be held accountable.