(May 16, 2025 at 8:01 am)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:(May 15, 2025 at 10:55 pm)Paleophyte Wrote: Call it what you like but there's clearly processing that we aren't aware of. Influence that and there's influence that the conscious mind can't easily deal with.
Like what?
As I recall, there's been a lot of work done on what message a particular media product SEEMS to be teaching, vs. what it is really teaching.
So you've probably heard of the criticism that Sesame Street, while intended to help children learn to read, actually damaged their ability. The producer's plan was to make it fun to learn reading by making the letters dance and sing and tell jokes. But of course actual reading requires a kind of sustained attention to letters that DON'T dance or sing, so kids raised on Sesame Street found it too boring to read a page of text.
Then there are the criticisms that superhero movies have a fascist message hidden behind the charm of the hero's personalities. (Only the ubermensch can save us.) Or of course the constant message in US media that the hero is the person who makes the most effective use of violence. This teaches us something.
This is not exactly subliminal or subconscious, because once it's pointed out it's obvious. But I do think that a lot of people absorb the subtext in an uncritical way.
