The Power of Persuasion - Essay Example

Commercial advertisements are among the most persuasive content in the media. The concept behind them is that a predetermined situation must develop from a preliminary influencing activity in comparison to other similar processes. Although potential negative results are predicted, counter-responses are also planned for them. Through the notion of “social proof”, individuals generally tend to look upon others that they consider comparable to themselves in decision-making (Cialdini, 2009). This notion explains how peer influence works. To this end, advertisers usually provide untrue depictions in staged interviews or commercials of what people in a particular age group are doing and find trendy. In the same way, a politician seeking reelection will only have his positive attributes aired during a campaign while promising to achieve what their opponent did not. Biased media coverage is also used to make people automatically agree to what they are told without a second thought, which is always the simpler decision to make.

Among the persuasion techniques used in such campaigns were association, bandwagon, intensity, and repetition. The association is also highlighted by the idea of “liking”, where an audience is persuaded to link people with others they already know and like from the perspective of success, fun, or beauty (Cialdini, 2009). When the politician tried to convince the constituents to vote for him, the idea quickly created a bandwagon effect after most saw interviews on television that implied everyone was happy with him. He took advantage of being well-known in society to persuade people and propagate his influence. This is an effective strategy because once an idea takes root in a target audience, no one wants to be left out. Repetition of advertisements and constant persuasions produced an attribute of commitment and consistency among the voters, most of who were of the same age group as the candidate. After showing their initial liking for him and committing to vote him back in the previous election, most were willing to show consistency to justify their commitment. Repetitive persuasion follows that media owners understand that people are convinced by what they see advertised on television, movies, the internet, and video games, especially those that the media emphasizes are acceptable and fashionable to society (Chomsky & Herman, 2002).

However, even with their open knowledge that the politician did not deliver on his promises from the last campaign, the audience is still convinced by the depictions of authority which the media presents to them. The media is aware that most audiences have respect for authority and want to be associated with those deemed to be real experts in impressive clothing, expensive vehicles, and business titles. When the media gives an appearance of authority, the probability that the audience will abide by requests is increased, even if it is an illegitimate authority (Chomsky & Herman, 2002). The media shows what the politicians want, as well as themselves, in biased ways by either excessive or limited content on contentious topics. For example, the media may dwell too much on the good that the politician did for a certain segment of the audience, driving them into the guilt of reciprocation (Cialdini, 2009). Here, the audience will feel indebted to him for his services and may be convinced to vote him back, despite all his other failures.

I feel that the media uses influencing as a persuasion process to get as much public opinion as possible in favor of their message. They first analyze their audience and prepare the content plan for their campaign, which is usually designed to be manipulative. They present their opening statement in the context of what they, as influencers, need from the audience. The audience fails on its part, and grants the influencer success, by not analyzing what is offered to them in terms of what the influencer wishes to achieve. If all audiences critically examined media content, not all would be as effective as has been previously witnessed. Read More