The ability of subliminal messages to affect our thoughts and attitudes has been known for decades. Our mindscape is coveted territory. Thoughts lead to actions, and when the desired action is a vote or the release of money from our bank accounts, we are the subject of much study.
Some attempts at influencing our behavior are fairly easy to detect. For example, we are more likely to purchase items on the middle shelf at the grocery story, so the brands most profitable to the store are often placed at that position.
There are other ways that our thoughts are influenced which are more difficult to trace. Consider the information we receive that is loosely referred to as “news.” Many of us grew up watching the nightly news on television when there were only three networks from which to choose. Now that the world is online, competition for our attention is fierce and it takes place between myriad sources of information and entertainment. Perhaps this is why headlines so often seek to grab our attention with sensation. Thank goodness for small town newspapers and local radio stations, right?
Saturday night I decided to take a sampling of headlines from one of our Atlanta television stations. Like every media outlet that wishes to survive, WSBTV has an online presence which augments its television broadcasts. I chose the “Latest Headlines” section of their site. Like the middle shelf of the grocery store, this section is placed to grab our immediate attention. I picked one word from each headline which represented the main point of the story represented. This is the resulting list of words: Dead, shooting, prostitute, HIV, injured, Feds, stolen, shoots and sponsored. Technically, “sponsored,” was not in the headlines section, but it immediately followed the last headline in the section.
Unfortunately my list of words is not atypical for this and many other media outlets, and while the subliminal message may be unintended, just what is that message for a growing number of people worried about the economy, worried about the condition of the world and worried about our continued march towards anarchy and apocalypse? How does the constant barrage of sensation and negativity affect us when it is presented at the beginning, the middle and the end of the day; a death for breakfast, a shooting for lunch and a theft for dinner, day after day after day? If sex and celebrity can influence us to purchase a particular brand, how are we being influenced by a steady diet of bad news? How will our behavior and our health be affected should media, intentionally or unintentionally, convince us that the world is a bad and wrong?
Bad things happen all time, every day, everywhere. Good things happen also, but they are not afforded equal status. Some would argue that media gives us exactly what we want , that our culture slows down to gape at an accident but never was there a traffic jam caused by motorists slowing down to gawk at a rainbow or a beautiful sunset. I would counter that argument by pointing out that our obsession with dancing celebrities and the popularity of other distracting entertainment results from our desire to escape from all the bad news.
What if we decide that we don’t want to believe that the world is rotten, that we are surrounded by violence and vice and disaster at every turn? Many people find it easier to escape, but what if we prefer to be aware and informed? The answer is, we discern. We choose. We filter what we allow to live in our consciousness, and most importantly for the mental health of future generations, we teach our children to do the same.
