Message Control Through Volume

Public perception is influenced by emphasizing the points that will win over the audience.

This Whitehouse masterfully works on mass perception by aggregating the points they want emphasized and then linking back to the full report. People are always going to read the summary, not many folks-- often including me-- are going to click through to the full documentation. There's just too much to consume to fully understand the big picture.

On the other hand, the previous Whitehouse worked public opinion through highly disciplined message control. That team only put the information out there that they wanted the public to know. This is another strategy for influencing perception.

Either way, when the beholder doesn't see the whole picture they will draw conclusions based on what they do see. Every team uses these and other strategies to get "friendly" messages in front of the audience.

Sometimes the in the zealousness for victory and success folks go over the line. Here's an article about Merck's efforts to sway perception of the drug ­Vioxx.

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