Media Manipulation: Sadly, We’re Being Discouraged From Thinking About Sustainability

You’re being played.

But not by me. Because I’m being played too.

Let me promise you the following.

Besides catchy headlines using (basic) media manipulation tricks to get your attention for a greater good, I’ll be as honest, transparent and human as I can.

Because — you see — just like me, you too are eager for more honest conversations. The kind that also makes us wonder how a healthier world and a fairer society can come to life.

The kind that rarely shows up in the news. Not analysed in depth, anyways.

Ever wondered why?

Sustainability and Media Manipulation

I’m standing somewhere in the middle of communicating the urgency of designing a more sustainable and regenerative world — which I do for a living.

While pursuing to become better in the areas of communication, social media and marketing, I stepped into Trust me, I’m Lying, a book written by leading media strategist Ryan Holiday.

Tired of a world where algorithms drive everything to extremes and opinions masquerades as fact, he exposes how media manipulation works. I stand with him.

And I hope you too stand with us.

My +250 articles written to help individuals and organisations contribute to a more sustainable world had an audience of 423k and 589k page views between October 1–31, 2020.

I got many keywords like sustainability, deforestation, CSR, soil erosion, car pollution and a couple of others on Google’s top organic searches.

I like to think I’m one of the good guys. Not just because I identify where I get my information from.

But also because I credit those who created the information I’m using in the first place (like the United Nations or Nature, the scientific magazine) and the pictures I use.

Just like I quote my favourite authors when sharing perspectives I know I got from reading their books or blog articles.

But Ryan’s book makes me realise the digital news system is rigged against me from the start. That I’m part of a competition that isn’t fair.

That I (and all my colleagues producing sustainability-related content) always start far behind the pole position.

It’s like that feeling when you’re a kid and you’re about to play soccer with your older brother’s friends, knowing they’ll kick your ass. Or when you think you’re signing brilliantly until someone suddenly turns down the volume.

The ugly world on TV and newspapers vs. the beautiful world outside

Rutger Bregman is a Dutch Historian who said in his recent — and incredibly fantastic — book “Humankind: A Hopeful Species” we humans are (some deep down) pretty decent.

Unfortunately, many (not to say most) of today’s news feed us with the opposite idea and keep us under this mistrust bubble where we are given information that too often leads to conflict and triviality — he says. And you and I agree, don’t we?

As a result, we believe the world is a scary, dangerous place. That people are dangerous and that we should not trust those we don’t know.

If we think about it, it’s even among the first things we teach our children. Not to trust strangers.

If only we had more opportunities and community spaces to get together and socialize. We could then become aware there’s more holding us together than what is tearing us apart.

And build structures based not on control and mistrust. But on our ability to collaborate and co-create innovative solutions, like Bregman briefly and beautifully mentions in this 4 min video.

But why aren’t we being taught different perspectives on how to build better societies and a healthier planet more often, instead of crappy content?

Why is today’s media talking so little about how to adopt a sustainable lifestyle and dedicating so much time to sharing futile information?

Here’s why.

The world might be boring. But the news is incredibly exciting

To spread and drive clicks — which is what everyone in the online business media is looking for because it’s what ultimately gives them ads money — the news needs to provoke extreme emotions. Especially negative ones. Says Ryan, not me.

Anger, fear and outrage are the top ones.

But too negative and pessimistic aren’t good either. Causing laughter is good, but not too good.

And that’s really sad, isn’t it?

That the truth is less interesting than the accusations.

That anger or surprise triggers a desire to act (to share and comment), under which natural chemical reactions are actually taking place inside us as if we were in the jungle running from a lion and for our lives.

The famous fight-or-fly response.

Our clicks are being shamelessly manipulated. Meet the web economics.

Creative writing as an engagement tool

I went back to Ryan’s book to get you this quote:

”No smart marketer is ever going to push a story with the stink of reasonableness, complexity or mixed emotions.”

I tell you this: if Ryan is right, other kinds of content creators looking for your attention will always be one step ahead of me.

Because the truth is reality, especially the better and sustainable kind of reality we should aim at creating, is complex.

Not black or white. Not 100% right or wrong. Just complex.

Like the Universe and our chromosomes. With many, constantly evolving, variables to be considered.

But if Bregman’s theory holds, decency and the same natural ability to collaborate that brought us this far will help us exit this manipulation.

And both you and I have a role to play here.

You can use your fingers and your mouth to help spread the message of how important it is that we are all conscious of controversial and trivial headlines.

Mind poorly checked facts and spicy writing too. They’re used to grab readers’ attention at the cost of reason, balance and critical thinking.

Also, if someone says they know the answer to a highly complex issue, they most likely don’t. Don’t trust them.

As for me, I hereby challenge myself to exit the search engine optimisation limitations that often — too often — limit my creative writing and prevent me from trying to make art out of writing.

I’m going all-in for the theory (I just made up) that vulnerable and creative writing is as or even more powerful than sensational headlines.

And I’ll use it to deliver a message:

We urgently need to design human structures that help both improve the planet’s health and rescue people’s well-being and joy to live.

I’ll be sharing my journey (adventures, challenges and ideas) as a sustainability educator too.

Thanks for reading me.