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In chapter two of Trust Me I’m Lying, Ryan Holiday talks about a scam called “trading up the chain,” which consists of posting ‘news’ on a small blog, so that larger blogs talk about being written on a small blog, and it leads to the story spreading to huge storylines. Holiday then explains how this chain is broke up into three levels: the entry point, the legacy media, and national. Each of the three chains explains the idea of starting in small local news leading to the national press. Holiday explains how he used “trading up the chain” in his career. He started by vandalizing billboards and sending pictures and information to local Los Angeles blogs to the Huffington Post writing about it, and finally, it being announced on the Washington
In The Ways We Lie, Stephanie Ericsson expresses the inevitability of lying and the way it is casually incorporated into our everyday lives. She personally brings light to all the forms of lying and some that are often not recognized as a lie. Ericsson questions the reasons and validity behind lies by highlighting the effects and consequences.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell looks at a number of social epidemics and analyzes their build up to the point where they tip. “Tipping” is that point where an epidemic booms, or grows, to its maximum potential. Gladwell begins defining “tipping” with a literal example of the famous shoes, Hush Puppies. Once considered old-fashioned, Hush Puppies experienced a social boom in the mid-90s when hipsters in New York made them trendy again. Gladwell continues explaining “tipping” with a medical epidemic of syphilis in Baltimore. Gladwell introduces us to three essential rules of epidemics: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. The Law of the Few says a key factor in epidemics is the role of the messenger: it spreads through word-of-mouth transmission. Gladwell explains this theory with an example of how Paul Revere managed to spread the news of British invasion overnight. Gladwell continues to explain that there are several types of people that create these types of epidemics. They are called Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. Connectors are those people that are very social and can literally connect with people with as little as two degrees of separation. Mavens are those that know a lot about a lot of different things. They may recommend a certain restaurant and you must go because you know what they told you about it is true. And Salesmen are exactly that: people that are easily social and persuading.
The Deadly Deception video scrutinizes the unjust practices of a syphilis study that began in the 1930’s on the campus of Tuskegee Institute by the U.S. Public Health Service. The experiment was conducted using hundreds of African American men that were mainly poor and illiterate. The study was called the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. Participates were deceived and lured in by promises of free medical care and survivors insurance.
Are everyday rituals, such as, facades reflected as to being a lie? Simply preparing for a meeting or interview does not come off as lying, although another type of façade such as when someone asks, “Are you okay,” after a death of someone close to you, in reality it is a form of a lie, because you are not being honest. In Stephanie Erricsson’s article “The Ways We Lie,” she discusses many different types of lying, that most wouldn’t even consider. Ericsson claimed, “But façades can be destructive because they are used to seduce others into an illusion” (409). Depending how a façade is used, the outcome can be beneficial or damaging. There are facades that are used to cover up one’s true feelings, in order to protect an individual and then there is a type in which one puts on a mask to cover up how awful of a person they are. Charity, a former friend, deceived me with the qualities of everything she was not, my mom is a great example of when it comes to hiding when she is saddened. In this article “The Ways We Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson has a great point of view on the destructiveness of facades, although, it can very well be used in a good way just as much as in a bad way, in fact, like my protective mother, using facades for mine and my sisters own good and then a conniving friend using facades in
In the documentary film, Page One: Inside The New York Times, the inner world of journalism is revealed through journalists David Carr and Brian Stelter as the newspaper company The New York Times, struggles to keep alive within a new wave of news journalism. The film is dedicated to reveal the true inner mechanics of what modern day new journalists face on a daily basis and leaves the audience almost in a state of shock. It broadcasts news journalism as yes, an old school method of news generation, but it also highlights an important component that reveals the importance behind this “old school” methodology. We often think that progression always correlates with positive products, but the documentary insists that within the case of modern journalism, the new wave method is actually a detriment that can reap negative consequences.
Should we stop lying and she would stop letting people lie to us? In “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson describes lying as “a cultural cancer that… reorders reality until moral garbage becomes as invisible to us as water is to a fish” (Ericsson 186). Ericsson believes that we have accepted lies to the point where do not recognize it anymore. Ericsson has a point, lying should not be tolerated but it should be the unnecessary lies that should not be tolerated. There are lies that are justifiable based on the intent of the person lying. All lies are harmful in their own ways from small lies, like white lies, to big lies, like out-and-out lies.
In “The Truth about Lying” Judith Viorst explains the four different kinds of lying. She categorizes lies as social lies, peace-keeping lies, protective lies, and trust-keeping lies. Social lies are lies that are “acceptable and necessary”, they are the little white lies most people use all the time. Peace keeping lies are told when the liar is trying to protect themselves from getting in trouble or causing any conflict. The protective lies are far more serious, are often told because of fear that the truth would be “too damaging” for the person being lied to. Lastly, there are the trust keeping lies, which are lies in which the liar is lying for a friend in order to keep a promise. Viorst finds that most of these lies, while some are more acceptable than others, are necessary and she can understand them.
Deborah Tannen is the author of “Sex, Lies and Conversation: Why is it So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other”. Tannen is a linguist who researches the relationships between men and women. She has not only conducted research, but has information published in several books and essays about this topic. Her research includes talking with several of groups and collecting data on the behalf of their response. In her essay, “Sex, Lies and Conversation,”Tannen argues that complications arise in marriages and relationships because individuals are not able to communicate with members of the opposite sex.
Edward L. Bernays deserves recognition far greater than that which he receives. "The father of spin" documents the career of Edward Bernays, the man himself and the monumental findings that precede him. Bernays not only fathered public relations as we know it he also shaped molded and embodied ideal practices of public relations and spin in everything that he did.
This essay by Sam Harris opened my eyes to new ideals about honesty and deception. I think it was a very well done piece and the author without a doubt was very deliberate in the rhetorical tools he chose to convince readers of his opinion about this controversial topic. Harris uses a particular sense of pathos to convince readers that what he is saying is right. For example, he gives the example that 10 percent of communication between spouses is deceptive (paragraph 24), and again when he asks, “What attitude could be more disrespectful of those we care about?” (paragraph 60). He purposely and subtly implements these claims which deliberately pull at the reader’s heart strings, making them more susceptible to his ideals.
Stephen Randall Glass was an up and rising journalist who graduated from Penn in 1995 to later on join The New Republic as an editorial assistant. During his stay there, he was known for his remarkable articles throughout his career such as the “Hack Heaven” which was published in 1998. However, as his career as a journalist began to skyrocket, the articles he was putting out were fabricated and invented. With thorough investigation from Adam Penenberg, a reporter with Forbes magazine, he was able to point out the flaws and false sources from the remarkable article, “Hack Heaven”. Unfortunately, The New Republic were going to be heavily affected for releasing fictional news. To resolve the situation, Lane, the editor at The New Republic, had
Another reason why people, especially publishers, might find fake news appealing is from the amount of money they can earn from something that is not true. In the first article, it states, “When you click or share a story, the person or company that created the site gets money. This money comes from advertisers who pay sites based on the number of views their ads get. That’s the point of shocking or outrageous headlines: to get you to click,” (Lewis, 11). This means that, for every outrageous news story that is clicked on, whether it is real or fake, it gets a lot of money. Anyone can become rich from starting a fake news business, and that is what many find appealing about the business. All in all, whether it be the thrill of telling a story, or doing it for the money, there are always people who are interested in the fake news
Mark Twain said “If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything”. The validity of those words rings true till this day. The effects of a lie or lies always seem to lead to a path of extreme detriment. Although I have experienced both sides of a lie I often wonder if the reasoning behind lying is always just. Do people lie to protect? Or is a lie an extension of deceit? These are questions that many people can relate and reflect on because we have all been lied to. Whether you were told white lies about the Easter bunny and Santa Claus or someone lied to you about their whereabouts any false statement is quite simply a lie. The effects of a lie are what I have the most experience in and it is those effects which caused me to be a liar in turn. Living a lie or maintaining lies an individual has told over time is a tiresome process and a difficult one to bear. My experience in dealing with a lie began at a young age. I was often enamored with associating with people older than myself and I frequently felt I had to establish that my experiences were equal or greater than theirs.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to lose your career? Shattered Glass, the movie, is a true story of a young journalist that lost his job at the New Republic, when it was found that he had fabricated over half of his articles. For journalists like Glass, lies can be described as barriers where, there’s no way to get around them. These lies can become great obstacles and have the potential to ruin one's career. When analyzing the movie on this young writer’s story, one can clearly understand what lead to Stephen’s career demise. Through lying trends and holes in the editing process, Stephen Glass’s career quickly began and ended.
Take these two illustrations, the lying and the taking of an innocent child's life, this could be seen as being equally wrong. Although, with that being said, the end that is supporting for one's household and the saving of a woman's life are without doubt morally right. Alternatively, one must learn to categorize what should be done in order to avoid the consequences of what is done. To elucidate my perspective what if the individual lying was not given the job due to the fact that they lied? What if the aborted baby had the cure for cancer? To conclude the wrong means used can lead to ruin rather than good.