From The Patriot Post editorial dictionary:
Pollaganda — n. 1. mainstream media (MSM) saturation of news cycle loops with a particular narrative bias, then polling media consumers for their perspective as shaped by that narrative or bias – in effect, mass media push-polling. 2. Outcome-based push polling; instruments designed to generate a preferential outcome, which can be used to manipulate public opinion by advancing the perception that a particular issue, individual, or group has a majority of public favor or disfavor. 3. A “dezinformatsiya” (disinformation) campaign of political polling used for propaganda; polling masquerading as “objective journalism” designed to advance a liberal bias.
Pollagandize — v. 1. To engage in pollaganda. 2. To utilize instruments of pollaganda, or selective poll reporting (reporting polls that comport with a particular ideological viewpoint), to advance a bias.
Pollaganda Effect — n. A self-perpetuating cyclical effect — the intentional and systematic propagation of mainstream media polls to manipulate public opinion by first saturating viewers with “reporting” that reflects a particular bias; second, conducting public opinion polls in concert with like-minded organizations or campaigns, which will reflect that bias; third, further proselytizing to a readership by treating these poll results as “news”; and fourth, using pollaganda to induce “bandwagon psychology” (the tendency of aspiring to the side perceived to be in the majority), thus further driving public opinion toward the original media bias, ad infinitum.
The Pollaganda Effect is akin to the “lemming effect,” where collective actions compel individuals to comport with their group, with undesirable or even tragic results. It is the result of outcome-based opinion samples (polling instruments designed to generate a preferential outcome), which in large measure reflects prior-opinion indoctrination or cultivation by media outlets – often the same outlets conducting the polling. The incestuous results are then used to manipulate public opinion further by advancing the perception that a particular candidate or political position enjoys majority support. In essence, Pollaganda is similar on a large scale, to “push-polling,” using robocalls and other means ahead of a poll to influence the outcome of that poll. But Pollaganda involves media indoctrination on a massive scale in influence the outcome.
The “Pollaganda Effect” refers to the use of polling as propaganda. This term refers to political polling that often masquerades as “objective sampling” but in fact includes a particular bias — who is asked what and how. That bias can be driven by ideology, advertising revenue, or both — which is to say that any commercial media outlet has an inherent conflict of interest in its polling. The Pollaganda process, then, is cyclical and self-fulfilling.
The MSM fallaciously presents such polling as if it were completely objective, but media-designed and reported polling is only as “objective” as the Demo/MSM outlets that sponsor them.
If you find it difficult to grasp the “bandwagon effect” of political poling and the self-fulfilling cycle it creates, consider this. Virtually every media outlet refuses to publish entrance or exit polling from the time polls open until they close. The standard reasoning offered is that the media does not want to influence the outcome of the election — because they know such polls will either motivate or deter some people from voting. However, the same MSM outlets inundate voters with polling up until the minute Election Day voting begins, as if somehow that polling does not influence voters.
Imagine, if you will, what the American political landscape would look like if our national mainstream media outlets were actually neutral in their reporting — conducting themselves as journalists rather than ranting political puppets. It would look much more like what our Founders intended — a nation where protecting Liberty and the Rule of Law enshrined in our Republic’s founding documents was chief among the concerns of our people.
So much for the “free examination of public characters and measures.” When confronted with the next headline or talkinghead report about the latest poll results, caveat emptor!
See Mark Alexander’s essay, “Pollaganda: The Fourth Estate and Public Opinion.”
