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Introduction
What we have experienced recently has proved once again that the human race must first of all be psychologically prepared for everything. We must agree that the world has been computerized for a long time, and modern information technologies have covered all spheres of our life. Thus, the digital revolution, also known as the fourth industrial revolution, is being an era of changes caused by the development of computerization and modern technologies. Due to the changes brought about by the digital revolution, a new social formation has emerged, known as the information society, for which knowledge has become a strategic resource instead of capital and labor (Konieczny, 2023). On the one hand, the informatization of society has facilitated many aspects of our life, but sometimes it can cause serious problems that we do not even notice.
Today, the Internet, which is a guest in every one of our homes, brings with it pleasant experiences, facilitates our work and communication, and takes us to places where we may never be able to go. However, as in any field, there is another side to the coin. Let's not forget that with the full penetration of modern information technologies into our lives, various forces, and sometimes states, skillfully use their capabilities to achieve their interests. As a result, there is a manipulation of the individual, society, state, region, and sometimes humanity. Manipulation - (manipulation of mass consciousness) - one of the ways to influence people by programming their behavior and thereby control or suppress their will. Since the middle of the last century, the problem of manipulative influence has been one of the central issues discussed in modern research in various fields of knowledge.
Initially, the phenomenon of manipulation was studied within the framework of the sciences dealing with the relationship of people in society, later, depending on the choice of object, subject, methods and, most importantly, the scientific focus of the study. Thus, scientists from specialized branches of knowledge began to interpret and consider this phenomenon in different ways. Manipulation has repeatedly become the subject of scientific research in philosophy, psychology, political science, sociology, linguistics, journalism, and marketing (Chester & Lasko, 2021; Ejelöv & Luke, 2020; Kligman & Culver, 1992; Mustafa, 2020; Phelan, 2021; Putniņš, 2012; Roozenbeek et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2023). Within the framework of each of the sciences, the main characteristics, signs, methods, means and techniques inherent to manipulative influence were identified. The Austrian scientist Herbert Franke believes that manipulation is a psychological influence that «is carried out secretly, and, therefore, to the detriment of those persons on whom it is directed» (Franke, 1964, p. 133).
The word «manipulation» is derived from the Latin word manus - hand (manipulus - a handful, from manus and ple - to fill). In the dictionaries of European languages, the word is interpreted as the treatment of objects with certain intentions or goals. The figurative meaning of the word, which we will further invest in the term «manipulation», is the deft treatment of people as a means to achieve the goals of the manipulator. The Oxford English Dictionary defines manipulation as «the act of influencing or controlling people with dexterity, especially with disparaging overtones, as covert control or processing».
In recent years the manipulation of consciousness has become the main way to shape public opinion. People are exposed to persuasive communication across many different contexts: governments, companies, and political parties use persuasive appeals to encourage people to eat healthier, purchase a particular product, or vote for a specific candidate (Matz et al., 2017). Manipulative influence is recognized as the most effective type of influence on the mass addressee, it has surpassed the covert control, persuasion, ignoring, coercion and other common technologies that help change any features of the object's personality, his consciousness or behavior.
According to Levitskaya (2022) the problems of propaganda, misinformation, media manipulations, and fake news have been repeatedly addressed in scientific research. One should agree that "around the world, disinformation is spreading and becoming a more complex phenomenon based on emerging techniques of deception. However, the recent explosive interest in this topic is probably mainly due to the advent of Social Media platforms that are progressively used by many as a source of information, and also as a tool for the diffusion of the information itself. Along with the mainstream public’s attention to this problem, scientists’ interest also spiked around 2016, when worldwide media appraised the possible interference of misinformation, disinformation, and other forms of information disorders during two historical political events: the U.S. Presidential campaign and Brexit (Ruffo et al., 2023).
On the other hand, different studies have pointed out the potential risks and capacities of technologies such as ads (Crain & Nadler, 2019), bots (González-Bailón & De Domenico, 2021), or deep fake (Kirchengast, 2020) in manipulating people, which undermines an adequate democracy, although the problem is complex because as Levitskaya (2022) highlight the countering disinformation can also have a detrimental impact on both human rights and democracy. What is clear is the relevance of the research topic that comes from the scope of the influence of information and communication technologies in socially significant areas, where the manipulation of public consciousness, in the Internet space, particularly in social networks. social, is an obvious phenomenon (Likarchuk et al., 2023). Then, the goal of this paper is to analyze the consciousness manipulation as a form of information-psychological war.
Development
Manipulation is a hidden psycholinguistic influence that requires special knowledge and is carried out in order to change the opinions, views, attitudes and goals of the person being manipulated, who, under the force of the influence exerted on him, independently expresses a desire to change them. A certain set of features follows from the definition. The signs of manipulation are understood as its essential characteristics, which make it possible to distinguish this type of influence from others. These include:
Hidden nature - is a secret, the manipulated should not find out about the unfair intentions of the addresser, otherwise, the action is curtailed. As G. Schiller notes, «To achieve success, the manipulation must remain invisible. The success manipulation is guaranteed when the manipulated believes that everything that happens is natural and inevitable» (Kara-Murza, 2012, p. 16).
Interdisciplinarity - carried out by means of psychological and linguistic methods of influence, both jointly and separately.
Specialization of knowledge - involves the mastery of specific knowledge and skills.
Specific target orientation - is created to achieve a certain result.
The presence of selfish intent - the manipulator deliberately engages in the manipulative influence of favorable conditions for himself in anticipation of the desired result.
Unequal result is expressed in certain negative consequences for the manipulated and positive for the manipulator.
Non-violent nature - the phenomenon under consideration excludes physical violence, coercion in fulfillment of a given goal.
Legality and impunity imply the free legitimate use of methods and means of manipulation without the onset of legal liability for the commission of this act.
Imaginary independence consists in maintaining the feeling of a sole decision-making being manipulated.
The problem of manipulation and manipulative influence appeared relatively recently, at the beginning of the 20th century, although manipulative methods and techniques have been used for centuries. One of the first psychological scientific work on manipulative influence is the book of the Soviet psychiatrist V. Bekhterev «Suggestion and its role in public life», in which the author described the action of «psychological microbes» that through words, gestures, actions, books, newspapers, etc. infect the psyche of people. The scientist described both the personal behavior of people and the behavior of people in the mass during «psychological infection». At the same time, suggestion is directly related to the manipulation of consciousness: «suggestion is nothing more than an intrusion into consciousness or inoculation of an extraneous idea into it without direct participation in this act of the «I» of the subject, as a result of which the latter in most cases is either completely, or almost it is impossible to reject it or expel it from the sphere of consciousness, even if one realizes its absurdity» (Bekhterev, 2019).
Most scientists understand manipulation as a means of psychological influence, with the help of which the subject of manipulation secretly controls the object of manipulation. Many scientists note that the manipulation is carried out so masterfully that the essence is unnoticed by others. Manipulation is associated with the deliberate distortion of information. Such a transformation of it is a powerful tool in the creation of manipulation technologies. Manipulation of consciousness is possible only through widespread control and directed transformation of information that determines motivations, attitudes, ideas, rules and patterns of human activity. At the same time, the trigger mechanism for manipulation is a certain degree of nervous and emotional tension of the mass of people. That is why manipulation is considered one of the most effective forms of information psychological warfare. In this regard, there is a big psychological war going on in the world today and the ongoing information-psychological warfare makes it possible to exert an intense influence and influence various processes at almost all levels of the state and social system in any country or region.
Such a sharp increase in the role of public opinion, which today in no small way affects the political processes and features of the functioning of the information and psychological environment of society, is associated with the emergence and accelerated development of the media. Information-psychological warfare and moral-psychological support are, respectively, the offensive (attacking) and defensive components of the information struggle in the social environment. It should be noted that the purpose and methods of psychological protection of the individual in the traditional sense and protection of information and psychological impact do not quite coincide. The purpose of psychological defense is to reduce the emotional stress that threatens the individual. Protection of the individual from the informational and psychological impact is more focused on maintaining the basic properties of the psyche, spirituality, individuality, character, values, moral criteria and properties of the intellect. It follows that only a deep analysis of the information situation (naturally, provided that the levels of other characteristic components of the personality are sufficiently high) makes it possible to identify the manipulative nature of the information and psychological impact, assess the reliability of the information, and develop the most appropriate ways for a particular individual to protect themselves from undesirable consequences.
One of the main objects of information and psychological support is also the system of formation of public opinion. According to the German sociologist Erich Fromm, the manipulation of public opinion is one of the most serious problems of modern political life. «Hypnotic techniques used in advertising and political propaganda pose a serious threat to mental health, especially clear and critical thinking and emotional independence. I have no doubt that careful research will show that drug use is far less harmful to human health than various brainwashing methods, from subthreshold suggestions to such semi-hypnotic techniques as constant repetition» (Fromm, 2000, p. 16).
The main means of manipulating human consciousness are the media (television, radio, press, websites, social networks, etc.). It is through the media that great revolutions or civil wars can be started in any country, like the «Color Revolutions» or the «Arab Spring» in the recent past. But the media itself has undergone several technological revolutions to achieve the power it has today. As a result of these revolutions, the ability to influence people has been strengthened and improved. Gradually, over the centuries, the process of transferring information and making it available to everyone today has become a dangerous weapon for all mankind.
The first technological achievement was the discovery of the German scientist Johannes Gutenberg of a method for printing books on a metal device in the middle of the 15th century. Thanks to his invention, it was possible to collect any text and print it in any quantity. The invention of Johannes Gutenberg radically changed the possibilities of dissemination of information, its speed and volume, which was the basis for the development of science, technology, education, and culture, accelerated social processes, and also fixed the vector of human development towards the information society. The high manufacturability and success of the found solution contributed to the rapid development of printing in European countries. By the beginning of the 16th century, more than 10 million books had been printed in Europe (Ilin, 2017, p. 163).
The second technological invention that revolutionized the way information was delivered and exchanged faster was the telephone. In 1876, Scottish scientist Alexander Graham Bell showed the world his invention - the world's first telephone. The telephone was first demonstrated to the general public in June 1876 at an industrial exhibition in Philadelphia dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. A. Bell saw the main advantage of the telephone over other electrical devices in that, unlike the telegraph, any person who speaks can talk on the telephone. The telephone provided speed, convenience and live contact between users. The second «arrival» of the telephone occurred in the 80s of the twentieth century as a result of the introduction of a wireless communication system. The invention of the mobile phone is associated with the name of American engineer Martin Cooper. Today, hundreds of millions of people are connected to wireline, optical or radiotelephone communication channels and electronic telephone exchanges, creating a personal communication technology space whenever they want.
The third revolution in the field of transmitting information to people occurred with the invention of radio. If in 1895, before the invention of radio by the Soviet scientist A. S. Popov, the impact on a person was local, then with its onset, the whole world became the field of information and psychological warfare. The next revolution began with the advent of television in the 1920s. In 1923, Soviet scientist Vladimir Zvorygin created the first fully electronic television system. Television is a very powerful and dangerous tool to influence people. Through it, a person can be raised to a higher level of creativity or lowered to a lower level. One of the best methods of propaganda today is television. Therefore, it is necessary to be extremely careful with television and especially with the programs broadcast on it.
The next advance in information revolution was made by personal computers and telecommunication networks presented to the world in 1946 in the USA. Connecting personal computers to telecommunications networks marked the beginning of the emergence of new technologies and information technologies. Later, in 1969, with the advent of the global network - the Internet, the capabilities of modern world powers increased even more.
With these leaps, the conduct of psychological warfare has become an integral part of the policy of both states and central forces. As already noted, the most optimal platform for implementing this policy today is the media. Yes, with the help of the media, these forces affect a person, the society in which he lives, the state to which he belongs. Of course, the impact on human consciousness is the first side of the matter, the main goal is to use it to your advantage. If we look at the modern influence of the media, we can confidently emphasize that the most powerful tool is television and social networks. However, as can be seen from historical events, before these two systems, it was radio waves that laid the foundation for psychological warfare. After the emergence of radio as a mass medium, it was able to overcome the barrier of space and distance, unlike newspapers. As a result, all boundaries for direct influence on the human psyche and propaganda were lost and were beyond the control of states.
For example, Adolf Hitler and the leaders of the Third Reich skillfully used the propaganda power of radio over the population and paid special attention to the implementation of their plans for world domination. Joseph Goebbels, who went down in history as one of the main ideologists of the German propaganda machine and the leader of the Nazi Party, explained the role of radio broadcasting in Nazi propaganda, in one of his speeches he clearly said: «For the 20th century, radio played the same role that the press played in the 19th century. Paraphrasing the well-known words of Napoleon in relation to our time, we have the right to say that radio has now become the 8th great power ... Without radio and aircraft, the conquest and consolidation of power in the current conditions are simply unthinkable» (Goebbels, 1938, pp. 197-198). Note that by the time the Nazis came to power, radio broadcasting had already become widespread. According to the International Radio Union in Geneva, in 1934 there were at least 200 million radio listeners in the world. In Germany, with a population of 65 million, at least 26 million listened to the radio. The German government had at its disposal one of the world's most technically advanced networks of radio stations. In other words, by that time, the radio opened up the possibility of propaganda influence, which many times exceeded the possibilities of the mass press itself.
During the Second World War, the struggle for mastering the minds of the great nations by broadcasting to Europe on the radio intensified. In those years, especially between England and Germany, there was a fierce struggle «for radio broadcasting». Great Britain began to make extensive use of new means of psychological warfare called secret radio stations. The goal was to spread threatening rumors and demoralize the German troops. Like Nazi propaganda, secret British radio stations broadcasted false information without citing any source. On the other hand, the Nazi method of psychological influence on citizens of foreign countries through radio broadcasts was skillfully used by the United States in the war with Japan, which was an important part of World War II, and lasted four years and ended with the explosion of two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. If the Goebbels Propaganda Ministry organized secret radio broadcasts on behalf of the «isolationists» in the United States, the Americans conducted the same propaganda on behalf of the neutral Japanese in Japan. Note that isolationism is a policy of refusing to participate in resolving international conflicts. For many years, Goebbels' model of transforming a potential listener into a human robot that can be controlled like a machine with some sort of consciousness, feelings, and actions served as the general rule for most radio warfare.
French professor Jacques Ellul, a member of the resistance movement during World War II, explained the essence of the concepts of manipulation as follows: «Now the main issue in propaganda is not to report the news in the newspaper or broadcast it on the radio, but what people think and what they believe at the request of the propagandist» (Ellul, 1973, p. 98). In other words, to put psychological pressure on a person or a certain society, to cause a special reaction in them, and thereby make them act the way you want.
Radio as a psychological-informational weapon was also widely used during the Cold War conflict between the USSR and the USA in 1946-1989. During the Cold War, Western radio waves regularly wrote every day about the threat of communism, created a state of military psychosis among the population, and constantly kept the people in fear. Well-known radio stations such as Radio Free Europe (RFE), Voice of America (VOA), Radio Liberty (RLT) took an active part in the geopolitical struggle between these two states. Of course, with the rapid development of television, and at a later stage, the Internet, radio has changed its place in the field of psychological warfare. However, radio, which was at the forefront of the biggest events of the 20th century, still remains an effective means of propaganda today.
To date, television is one of the factors that have the greatest impact on the human psyche. Television is a powerful tool that influences the mental state of both the individual and the masses. There are various mechanisms for the impact of television on the masses. For some people, it is impossible to prohibit watching television programs, since the peculiarities of the television signal and the presentation of the material first cause psychopathological symptoms (disorders of consciousness, will, attention, movement, emotion, etc.), and then become addictive. Anyone who watches TV for a long period of time can become addicted, and most importantly, when they stop watching, their personality can begin to show signs of neurosis. The essential effect of manipulative methods is based on the appearance in the psyche of the individual of the symptoms of borderline psychopathology. Television encodes the human psyche through a TV show. Such coding is based on mental laws, so any information first enters the subconscious, and from there it affects the consciousness. Thus, it is possible to model the behavior of the individual and the crowd through translation.
The first mass broadcasting began in Nazi Germany during the 1936 Olympic Games (Hitler was one of the first leaders to use the manipulative power of television). The year before, in April 1935, the first television theater with two TV sets for 30 people was opened in Berlin, and in the autumn of the same year a television theater with a projector for 300 people was opened, and in 1980 this figure reached 90%, and in 1980 year it was almost 98%, even in some families there were two or three TV sets. In general, starting from the mid-80s, television addiction began to cover the whole world.
Today, despite all the superior possibilities of the Internet, television retains its importance. During television broadcasting, the impact on the human psyche occurs through various forms of information transmission. At the same time, the simultaneous participation of the organs of vision and hearing affects the subconscious layers faster, which maximizes the manipulative effect. After watching a TV program for 20-25 minutes, the brain begins to absorb any information coming through the air, and as a result, the human mind is manipulated. Today, all of humanity is a victim of this policy. Back in 1968, the American scientist Robert McNeil wrote the following in his book The People Machine: «Television has caused such fundamental changes in the means of political information society, the likes of which have not occurred since the founding of our republic. Nothing before the advent of television brought such a monstrous change in the technique of persuading the masses» (MacNeil, 1968).
In general, television is the only informational phenomenon in the history of mankind that can have such a great impact on society in a short period of time. There are several secrets in the rapid spread of such an environment: firstly, television shows are very simple and understandable, since they are intended for all walks of life; secondly, the effect of personal participation of the audience in all the events shown is created; thirdly, according to psychologists, 40% of all sensory information about the person himself is obtained through vision. The visual range does not usually require a verbal or written description. The information received by the viewer is mostly complete, figurative and therefore very accessible.
In other words, as a powerful mass media, television gives people the opportunity to directly see the events, to be «on the spot» the events and to experience this moment together with the participants in the dramatic, tragic collisions of human life. However, the ruling classes of many societies use this opportunity to inform the masses for their political interests and commercial advertising and act as one of the leading means of moral manipulation of the minds of the masses. Although these manipulation methods seem quite simple, they have very dangerous consequences. The political and military conflicts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries showed once again how important it is to manipulate the consciousness of the masses with the help of television.
Even today, through television broadcasting, the minds of people and the masses are being manipulated to achieve many political interests. However, it should also be noted that today's television power is not only used to carry out disinformation activities. That is, the goal is not enough to influence the consciousness and direct the human mind. Naturally, in the information space of modern society, the Internet occupies a significant place, radically changing the way of life of millions of people. It is through the Internet that psychological wars are being waged today, and societies are being manipulated. The information on the subject is extensive, finding several academic papers (Crain & Nadler, 2019; Dellarocas, 2006; Plekhanova et al., 2023; Susser et al., 2019).
Conclusions
Information is a powerful factor that directly affects the mental state of people. Today, the role of information in manipulating the consciousness of the individual and the masses is very great. This process occurs mainly through the media. The mass media influence the psyche of the individual and the masses, introducing psychological techniques into the subconscious, which is reflected in their behavior. It should be emphasized that the media, as an actor of political manipulation, limits society in obtaining timely, objective and necessary information for a normal existence. The main factor in the emergence of the media is economic interests, therefore, spirituality takes the last place. As soon as the press and television appeared, they immediately assumed the role of subjects of manipulation. The political consciousness and behavior of people are completely dependent on the information field created by the media, giving mass character to public opinion. Today's computer and telecommunications networks, as a global phenomenon, are already capable of changing the political map of the world and the existing relations between the centers of power. Thus, as modern information technologies develop, the influence of the media on human consciousness will increase.
