a:10:{i:0;a:7:{s:2:"id";s:2:"10";s:4:"slug";s:23:"contact-the-island-news";s:4:"name";s:23:"Contact The Island News";s:4:"type";s:8:"fieldset";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:9:"parent_id";s:1:"0";s:5:"value";s:0:"";}i:1;a:7:{s:2:"id";s:2:"14";s:4:"slug";s:4:"name";s:4:"name";s:4:"Name";s:4:"type";s:4:"text";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:9:"parent_id";s:1:"0";s:5:"value";s:14:"H. Kirk Rainer";}i:2;a:7:{s:2:"id";s:2:"15";s:4:"slug";s:13:"business-name";s:4:"name";s:13:"Business Name";s:4:"type";s:4:"text";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:9:"parent_id";s:1:"0";s:5:"value";s:0:"";}i:3;a:7:{s:2:"id";s:2:"16";s:4:"slug";s:7:"address";s:4:"name";s:7:"Address";s:4:"type";s:7:"address";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:9:"parent_id";s:1:"0";s:5:"value";s:24:"United States of America";}i:4;a:7:{s:2:"id";s:2:"17";s:4:"slug";s:5:"phone";s:4:"name";s:5:"Phone";s:4:"type";s:5:"phone";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:9:"parent_id";s:1:"0";s:5:"value";s:10:"9043003128";}i:5;a:7:{s:2:"id";s:2:"18";s:4:"slug";s:5:"email";s:4:"name";s:5:"Email";s:4:"type";s:5:"email";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:9:"parent_id";s:1:"0";s:5:"value";s:21:"hkirkrainer@gmail.com";}i:6;a:7:{s:2:"id";s:2:"19";s:4:"slug";s:15:"how-can-we-help";s:4:"name";s:16:"How can we help?";s:4:"type";s:8:"textarea";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:9:"parent_id";s:1:"0";s:5:"value";s:5480:"Age to Age, on News that more than meets the Eye, Newspaper or not

Following from a point in a previous submission, “But today, in the information age, is much more than the newspaper as much as it may serve the community as a key resource,” is still an appreciation for printed media but, as circumstances have it, is far less an option (for me); a personal choice that perhaps as true for many, is supported by a online read yesterday by James Colbert, “Online Media: The Promise and the Peril,”  

&quot;In the space of two generations, we have transitioned from a world where most people subscribed to newspapers and adjusted the bunny ears on their TV sets to receive their nightly news broadcast to a world where most people browse social media from around the world and stream the latest news directly to their phone. &quot;

He continues, 

&quot;You don’t have to go out on a limb to suggest that the “on-line revolution” that has taken place in the 21st century is at least as dramatic (if not more so) than the Gutenberg printing press revolution itself&quot;
  
Indeed, there is an overwhelming, seemingly endless, means of/to media from which to choose at the convenience of a feed, prompt, a button or two, a swipe and a video as opposed to strictly reading on screen or paper.   And given the seemingly unlimited…, we each should have fewer excuses to be informed, aware, and knowledgeable as preferred in making choices, decisions, and generally navigating through life, living.  

But there is more than meets the eye in the plethora of platforms, the mass of media, and inundation of information; yes, and besides our vision, so other senses that, when combined, produce our perception of things, of not only how we come to believe as we do but, should that change, why we believe differently.   

Beginning in the early 1900s, Edward Bernays embarked on a relatively new field of public relations and propaganda; and as a brief from Wikipedia, he made his mark by, among other campaigns, enabling the legalization for women to smoke in public—as perhaps a breakthrough in their arduous efforts to gain equality as it seemed, a step in what they viewed as the right direction despite what we know of tobacco.  Indeed, Bernays’ seminal work, “Propaganda”, would be a primer for Joseph Goebbels, a minster of the Nazi executive staff.  

Promoting the benefits of smoking, Bernays would go on to establish an impressive list of public and private clients, but even so, was blowing smoke; endorsing and promoting tobacco while forbidding his wife to take up the practice, evidently aware of early studies that linked it to cancer.  In the same vein, he later propelled Dixie cups, launching a campaign to scare the public into thinking that disposable cups were the only sanitary choice.   And further, pulling from the article “The manipulation of the American mind: Edward Bernays and the birth of public relations, published in July 2015, 

&quot;In the 1920s, Joseph Goebbels became an avid admirer of Bernays and his writings— though Bernays, a Jew. When Goebbels became the minister of propaganda for the Third Reich, he sought to exploit Bernays’ ideas to the fullest extent possible. For example, he created a “Fuhrer cult” around Adolph Hitler.&quot;

The manipulation of the mind was at the heart of Bernays, his stock and trade, his claim to fame, as suggested by that from his book, Propaganda, first published in 1928.    

&quot;The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.&quot;

And whereas Bernays admitted to the positive and negative aspects or outcomes of this ideology, there remains

&quot;…invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.&quot; 

And in the ideology and its methodology are aims to substitute or supersede individual, independent thought or thinking with impulses, habits and emotions with information that has a form and fraction of truth—enough to make it believable, acceptable—as a cover for control.  Still, he understood that such…does not stay the course or stand under scrutiny.  

&quot;Propaganda becomes vicious and reprehensive only when its authors consciously and deliberately disseminate what they know to be lies, or when they aim at effects which they know to be prejudicial to the common good.&quot;

And in the dissemination of deliberately false or falsified information or data is the reality that those of power will play the heavy hand against any who disagree or dissent;  that what was sold as a choice in fact becomes (or indeed was…) coercion, compulsion, and that which constitutes force, considering the costs outlaid, incurred and endured, by the uncompliant.     

Given the short on Edward Bernays, his ideology and influence, is reason to consider (or reconsider) that there is more to news and information than meets the eye; that what you see, or otherwise sense, may not be so, giving more credence to both Benjamin Franklin and Edgar Allen Poe:  believe only half of what you see and nothing of that you hear.";}i:7;a:7:{s:2:"id";s:2:"11";s:4:"slug";s:12:"verification";s:4:"name";s:12:"Verification";s:4:"type";s:12:"verification";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:9:"parent_id";s:1:"0";s:5:"value";s:0:"";}i:8;a:7:{s:2:"id";s:2:"12";s:4:"slug";s:27:"please-enter-any-two-digits";s:4:"name";s:27:"Please enter any two digits";s:4:"type";s:6:"secret";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:9:"parent_id";s:2:"11";s:5:"value";s:2:"12";}i:9;a:7:{s:2:"id";s:2:"13";s:4:"slug";s:6:"submit";s:4:"name";s:6:"Submit";s:4:"type";s:6:"submit";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:9:"parent_id";s:2:"11";s:5:"value";s:0:"";}}