A recent lockergnome question asked "do you worry about subliminal messages in media?" I really found I feel strongly about this issue - I'm not worried about subliminal messages per se, but the dangers of all the media we ingest on a daily basis.

I don't think we need to worry about hidden forms of mind control since so much media is direct, upfront mind control or non-too-subtle persuasion. I think there are very few people who reflect on the effects of media on their thinking, few people that guard themselves against the media. Ever seen the bumper-sticker "Question Authority"? There are few people that practice "Question Media".

There are a couple of areas where you'll know you are being manipulated and thus to be on your guard:

- Repetition - sheer repeating of a message beats it into your subconcious - Think of the Subway "Five, Five dollars, Five dollar footlong" jingle. You know it, you can sing it, you can picture the commercial, you remember your last subway sandwich, hey I'm hungry....!
- Music - As an emotional lever, it's effective since a lot of us have very strong ties to the music we listened to during high school and college, it's very effective at making a listener receptive on an emotional level (associating the good feelings of a favorite song with the product advertised), if not simply effective on the level of gaining our attention.
- Just plain misleading "facts". This is an issue I have with a lot of mainstream media, where graphs and figures are poorly, or misleadingly used - such as a recent look at forclosures in the town where I live. It alarming pointed out that there was a "%150 percent increase" in the forclosures over a recent quarter. *They went from 1 to 3. Out of a possible 15,000 properties (or more) in the city - so the statistics give no scale to the problem. Additionally, what is the average number of forclosures for this period over the last 10 years? These figures are misleading if you don't look at the size of the problem in context, if you don't question them.

So basically, worry first about the more blatent effects of media and make sure you are questioning those - then worry about the subliminal messages. Remember: Every ad is trying to get you to act, to purchase, to vote, to think in a particular way - are you protected? Listen to and watch everything critically.