> Selective truth: restrictive use of data or facts to sway opinion that might not be swayed if all the data or facts were given.
This is usually interpreted as presenting only half of a story, but the more common and powerful use is in presenting the whole story, while simply ignoring unfavorable stories, and promoting favorable ones. Is a murder front-page news, or a footnote? Depends on the murder.
Selective Truth is the primary form of misinformation today.
Respectable outlets have to generally tell the 'truth'.
But - they can chose the stories they want to highlight, and leave out facts entirely.
A neat example I like to use is the CBC's coverage of the 'trail of tears' story - which is the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women from the 1960's to 2000, about 3000 went missing, somewhat higher than the norm. for Canada.
What they never highlight in coverage, is that 1) about 8500 Aboriginal Men went missing during the same time and 2) that almost universally, the assailants in attacks against against Aboriginal Women are in fact, Aboriginal Men.
When I bring up the facts, which I had to research myself - people seemed to be shocked and dismayed as though 'Men's deaths don't matter' - just because they happen to be a part of a group where others are committing violence, and, that somehow the fact that the violence seems to be entirely focused within the community is 'of no concern'.
In reality, most CBC watchers (Canadians) would be enlightened by the fact 'even more' Aboriginal men are dying that they deserve our sympathy in that regard, and especially that the troubles are focused within the community which is incredibly relevant because it helps inform solutions.
Imagine growing up and spending 25 years being exposed to '1/2 truths' like this?
It's surprisingly more common than not in many media outlets covering anything remotely sensitive to the point where I've developed a 'Spidey Sense' and frankly spend only 1 minute on Google to uncover highly relevant facts that should have likely been included.
I feel that this kind of thing is more important than the nature of propaganda highlighted in the article, because for the most part, classical propaganda is not nearly as common as those presenting a form of 'leaning bias' on sensitive issues.
The Government isn't very good at most propaganda these days, and I think we all know that Corporate advertising is 'propaganda' at least by this definition. We are mostly not aware of how consistent the bias is in the press, and how narratives are created there, which is why maybe it deserves more scrutiny.
This is usually interpreted as presenting only half of a story, but the more common and powerful use is in presenting the whole story, while simply ignoring unfavorable stories, and promoting favorable ones. Is a murder front-page news, or a footnote? Depends on the murder.