Now They Tell Us

Overall I thought weeks reading assignment was an excellent choice. As a design student I thought I should comment first on it by saying that I really enjoyed the publisher’s work on it and found it to be very approachable and reflective of the subject matter. I believe if this book had caught my eye while browsing through a bookstore, I would have probably bought it. 

I really enjoyed this book because all that was written was relevant, made sense, and was well researched and thought out. The book really brought light to the subject and offered a great amount of cited information. If this book had more publicity I believe it would really change minds on the subject of the war in Iraq. 

During the beginning of the war I must admit that I was not well informed about the war, the Bush Administration, and many of the current events of the time. I had known about the claims of  WMD’s and the fact that they had not found any, but I never looked deeper into the subject. I was extremely surprised that many of the claims had come from the New York Times article by Judith Miller. I especially enjoyed the essay Now They Tell Us and felt that it really exposed problems in the media and the great power that they hold.(Power being shown when Rush Limbaugh was branding people as traitors.) Massing’s essay had really showed the power of words and the misuse of them. 

It is quite surprising that people had taken the claims of  WMD’s in Iraq with little hard evidence, and the fact that the administration had taken advantage of it. The government should have analyzed the information they had on the pipes and the conflicting views presented by scientists of what they could have been used for. 

11,12,13

I thought all of the chapters were very interesting but I found chapter 12 to go beyond that because I‘ve always had a specific interest in the field and how it affects people. I had no idea that advertising had gone back so far, but after being informed of it‘s history I am suprised that mankind had come up with such an idea so early. However at the same time I don‘t find it so suprising because advertising goes hand in hand with products and services, and can be called a basic need of a business.

I found it to be quite interesting also that the government in 1958 had placed a ban on subliminal messaging in advertisements, when in the book it clearly states that it is not considered a danger. After reading about this ban I thought further research of the subject would help clarify the ban for me because I believe an action such as that should only be placed because it poses a threat. 

I studied quite a few subliminal messages placed in advertising through google and youtube and found that such symbolism placed in ads such as sexual imagery, dollar signs, etc. were so complex that it would require special attention to have some sort of effect on the viewer. Along with special attention, I believe that the viewer would have to have something to associate the imagery with. For example, I had seen some of what some would call subliminal messages in Disney movies but because the audience are mostly young children, they have little to nothing to associate sexual imagery or phrases with. 

Also from research I read from a couple studies that it did not pose a threat to anyone and that it would require special attention from the viewer to register the subliminal item to a small degree. After reading the studies and viewing the advertisements, I could not come upon the reason why the government would step in and place a ban on subliminal advertising other than some sort of paranoid fear of mind control.