-
I do think it makes a difference, yes. Nothing is ever a guarantee of course and no one is immune to manipulation and propaganda (though different people clearly respond to very different things). But if you look at it the other way around, if anything might give you some amount of 'protection' from being manipulated, it's being at least somewhat informed about how things work and what's going on. Especially as in my mind, this presupposes the existence of some skills, such as online research, and having a certain amount of scepticism.
At least there's been some move towards trying to teach more of that in school (e.g. online research skills), and I do think the younger generation growing up now is less likely to read one of those chain letter thingies on Facebook and believe everything it says like some people clearly do.
Bit of a clichee example, but yes: the rub is usually in the interpretation of data. That's why there are people who do nothing else: it's really not straightforward.
SwissChap-
I do think the younger generation growing up now is less likely to read one of those chain letter thingies on Facebook and believe everything it says like some people clearly do.
For me, it's a much bigger problem than chain letter thingies on Facebook. For example: the Trump campaign was spending 1 million dollars a day (just digital ads) to try and influence susceptible voters in the final weeks of the election. That's before you consider the influence over other media.
Spending lots of money in a very targeted way is a winning tactic, but I have two problems with it: using lies (propaganda) to create your desired behaviour change and ensuring a level playing field for all candidates/policies (spending limits).
Vote Leave had a winning tactic/team, but they lied and went over the spending limits.
JonoMarshall
I don't disagree, but do you think being informed makes a difference once a significant volume of targeted propaganda is involved?
I tend to work with anticipatory/momentary/episodic research and data for the latter is considered proof (at scale).