When statecraft turns on the people its meant to serve, and journalists are impotent.
Imagine awakening to the news you’ve committed an offence. Your defence strategy is to instruct those close by you to provide the same alibi about the reasoning behind your actions. Why?
Psychologists refer to this as illusionary truth effect. And guess what? Even when people are told that a repeated statement is less likely to be true than what really took place, they can eventually yield to the repetition. Goebbels knew that. He learned that from the Edward Bernays.
At the police station, your statement is met with skepticism. Outside, your story is gaining traction. The truth effect is kicking in, but the police charge you all the same. The charge is a fine.
Your followers are dismissive anyway. But what about the media, the body of professional people who are trained to provide the truth, hold people to account?
The most they can do is to keep asking the question of the supporters. The response after a couple of minutes is the same. That’s what statecraft was banking on. It’s like something out of a heist film.
“Alright lads, so long as you stick to the story, we’re be alright, right! Stick to the bloody story! These muppets can only hold onto a thought for about a day then they’ve got to move on”.
Guess who wins, even though this shouldn’t be a contest for the truth.
Question? Do journalists need to be retrained or do you need another breed of storytellers to fulfil this role?
State craft is how states strategically pursue power, but what when they use these on the very people they state they serve. Storycraft is the narrative that follows, developed over years with psychoanalysts and behavioural psychologists. But storycraft isn’t confined to the state, organisations, or powerful people.
The issue is the journalists’ self-proclaimed tool kit negates using 21st models of storytelling to address state craft. What is that tool kit? What can be done?
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