Benevolent and malevolent media producers possess the power to influence society in positive and negative ways. They can do this through agenda setting, framing, priming, spreading memes, altering perceptions of groups and individuals, outright propaganda, and other methods.

I think more attention should be paid to the pathways from content to effects, so that we can optimize our cultural landscape.

Lest this post soon turn into Applause Light Vegas, I’ll now get into some methods I think can be used to sway mass opinion in a direction amenable to making the world better. Many of these methods deal with familiar biases, heuristics, and psychological effects.