Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect (Manipulation)

Joe, Gutmensch, DDR, Sunday, 17.08.2014, 12:56 (vor 3533 Tagen) @ Rainer

Leider gibt's dazu überhaupt keine deutschsprachigen Quellen, deshalb zitiere ich es mal im Original:

Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I call it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.)

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I’d point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all.

But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn’t. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia.

http://seekerblog.com/2006/01/31/the-murray-gell-mann-amnesia-effect/

Sinngemäß: Du schlägst eine Zeitung auf und liest einen Artikel über ein Thema, worin du dich auskennst (zum Beispiel Familienrecht). Du liest falsch recherchierten Müll und stellst fest, daß der Redakteur absolut keine Ahnung vom Thema hat oder bewußt Falschinformationen verbreitet. Dann schlägst du die nächste Seite auf und liest einen Artikel über internationale Politik. Der ist von der selben Qualität. Da du dich damit aber weniger auskennst, überschätzt du die Glaubwürdigkeit des Berichtes hältst ihn für interessant und gut recherchiert. Du hast vergessen, was du auf der vorigen Seite noch wußtest. Das nennt man den Gell-Mann-Amnesie-Effekt