FRAMING WORKS - Let's use it to Promote Hive
One day I noticed a picture of a politician. What was strange about it was that his eyes were squinted closed and his mouth was open as if they'd caught him mid-yawn. Asking the worker about it elicited the response that they'd chosen that pic on purpose to make him look foolish and mentally turn voters off who viewed the picture. He said it was part of "Framing" and thus began my education in how the media molds the American mind.
Mind control, the American way
Several employees were only too eager to share their knowledge of how it all worked. Carefully chosen words (and images) can have a powerful overt and even subliminal effect on anyone consuming your content. They took me through article after article, showing me how it was all laid out. If they supported a candidate, flattering photos were always used, and the opposite was done to those on the other side. In the case of the yawning photo, this man was threatening the lead of the establishment candidate and had to be taken down. When the outsider held rallies, the camera was usually trained only on him and the text would describe his "thinly-attended event" instead of the packed crowd he actually had.
Remember 2016, when Trump admonished the media for not panning to the capacity crowds at his rallies? He knew exactly what they were doing and wasn't about to let them get away with it. If a speech was covered, the most memorable quote would be left for the end in the hope that readers wouldn't get that far. Bad news was pushed to a Saturday, always the slowest news day, so that it'd be forgotten over the busy weekend. This free education in media control equipped me to look at articles in a whole new way. I could now see what they were doing. It was just like that scene in The Wizard of Oz where now that I'd had a peek behind the curtain, nothing would ever be the same again.
Framing the news
As I got older, I began to notice a change in the way news was reported. Titles and phrases that had always been offered up one way, were now being shared in a whole different way. I'll start with some examples:
Here's what they started out as – Here's what they became
Police Shooting – Officer-Involved Shooting
Peace Activists – Anti-War Protesters
Arrested – Detained
Prisoner – Detainee
Prison/Jail – Holding Facility
Terrorist – Jihadist
Downsizing – Fired/Layoffs
Homemade Bomb – Improvised Explosive Device
Tear Gas – Chemical Irritant
Flash Bang Grenades – Less Lethal Weapons
Rubber Bullets – Kinetic Impact Projectiles (KIPs)
Welcome to the FN-303 (which fires "Kinetic impact projectiles")
In 2004, one of these "less lethal weapons" killed 21-year-old Victoria Snelgrove, a student at Emerson College, who was out innocently celebrating the Boston Red Sox World Series Victory. She was shot in the eye by the police with a gun known as the FN-303. The FN-303 Riot Gun is classified as a lethal weapon in a number of European countries, as it has the effect of a sledgehammer and should not be aimed at the face or head the way it was used on Victoria Snelgrove.
This article uses the phrase "kinetic impact projectiles" instead of rubber bullets. The ACLU has an informative guide on the different types of kinetic impact projectiles and how they affect the human body. Over time, we see the intended effect where even members of the public bombarded with this doublespeak, start using the dodgy terms themselves. This is evidence that the framers have done a good job trickling these phrases down into the minds of the people.
WE need to define our community
Donald Trump was very effective at framing his opponents in the race for the Presidency. Who can forget: "Crooked Hillary," "Crazy Bernie, or "Sleepy Joe." What always surprised me was their inability to fight back with their own framing of him. He knew how to reach (and program) the common man, so that Joe Six-pack felt that this billionaire understood what he was going through.
And that's why we need to incorporate positive framing when we set out to promote Hive and Leofinance. We will not let others negatively frame the crypto community. We know all about the FUD out there and the attempts to associate cryptocurrency with illegal activities, so we need to replace their negative framing with a positive message that helps bring in the masses.
We can build phrases that remind people that there are families in the developing world right now making a living and feeding their families by blogging on Hive. Instead of spouting insider jargon, we can develop user-friendly phrases that unlock the power inherent in crypto in general and Hive and Leofinance in particular. Let's take the very weapon they are using against us and turn it into a productive and positive frame.
I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is; are we robotic slaves or free men? We have the ability to use our intellect and separate truth from propaganda. An article in the Columbia Journal Review gives us the background and makes the case for why we should stop using the term "Officer Involved Shooting." I think that's a great place to start to begin the process of deprogramming our minds from the doublespeak we encounter every single day. George Orwell would be proud.
Thank You So Much!
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You nailed it. However, Marketing and branding gets to be sloppy in a plutocratic world called Hive and Steem where large stake holders can play games and can careless about platform development or are disconnected from simple concepts like discussed in this post.
The concept of communities and Hive as a 'censorship resistant' platform becomes silly when no matter what community your in a large stake holder can flag ya and discourage further content creation and growth. Oftentimes this is done without even a comment and to quality content creators with large audiences coming from youtube or even well written posts just for political reasons.
While framing our perceptions into positive wording when vocalizing them is important, 'framing' can easily be looked at as a way to dress up a ugly reality just to sell a product.
I'm hopeful that over time, these things will resolve themselves. There are enough good content creators here that if things were to get too bad, they have been blessed with the talent to plant their flag in more fertile soil.
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I suppose. But there certainly is a group of people here on Hive that has been traveling around from platforms to platform since the late 90s with message boards. So still a cool way to connect with og online community members and get recognized as newer platforms emerge or ideally as Hive.io grows positively with the currency itself.
Cool analogies @evernoticethat. We must use such tactics and showcase the positive sides of Hive and Leo Finance. It definitely works! Of course it shouldn't be based on lies or malice. Right now the governments and the banks are negatively framing crypto. It's our job to spread awareness among the masses so that they can know both sides of (bit)coin. 🚀
Together we can expose the propaganda created by evil or ignorant people.
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You know what? it was those very articles I kept seeing over and over again that compelled me to write this post. They were trying way too hard to link the general crypto community with all manner of bad actors to try and scare people away from the blockchain.
The framing was so obvious to me as I learned from the best. So I wanted to make sure we could see it for what it was and use it to our advantage.
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It's so easy to notice a propoganda when you look enough.
Advantages of Blockchain and crypto are so many. We can focus on that.
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Not going to happen when anyone can post whatever is desired. There is a reason why companies do not allow anyone to speak on their behalf. The marketing departments carefully contour the brand.
That isnt going to happen on here when people can throw up a post and have it stating whatever they want. Look at the difficulty getting people to post about finance and cryptocurrency.
Do you really think you are going to get people to frame their posts in a way that is positive to Leofinance or Hive. Hell, look in this comment section, one couldn't resist complaining about the whales and what is broken with Hive.
This in a post about framing our message.
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And that's the price of decentralized freedom isn't it? A wonderful catch-22 where we're no longer digital slaves to Facebook and Twitter handing our content over for free, but we also have the power to wreck or fortify Leofinanc and Hive.
There will always be a core group of people that actually care about the platform and it was the same way when I first started blogging before I came here. You and I and jfang003 all uploaded over 1000 word posts today that add to the library of evergreen content for Leofinance and Hive.
Looking at LeoMarketTalk, a small group pitches in daily to help boost engagement to help the platform grow. I could have thrown together a 300-word post and called it a day, but decided to go deeper. Just as with the guy who pops into LMT and shares SEO tips, only a tiny few will actually take action. We all spend hours here and on LMT because we care and want to help this platform succeed. I think those are the people I'm talking to in this post, as they're the ones who keep plugging away as we push towards growth every day.
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