Summary
We live in a world where everyone is trying to manipulate everyone else, where social media has opened up the floodgates for a mayhem of influence. And the one thing all the new propagandists have in common is the idea that to really get to someone you have to not just spin or nudge or persuade them, but transform the way they think about the world, the language and concepts they have to make sense of things.
Peter Pomerantsev, author of an acclaimed book on the media in Putin's Russia, examines where this strategy began, how it is being exploited, the people caught in the middle, and the researchers trying to combat it. Because it is no longer just at the ‘fringes’ where this is happening – it is now a part of mainstream political life.
Producer: Ant Adeane
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.0 | This is Analysis, the podcast about the ideas behind the news. |
| 0:46.0 | We're back with nine juicy episodes coming up over the next few weeks. |
| 0:50.0 | So go on, if you haven't already, hit that subscribe button. It's absolutely free. |
| 0:54.3 | I'm delighted to say that this podcast is coming from Peter Pomeransive. |
| 0:58.8 | He's been looking at the contest going on for common sense. Political success, he argues, no longer lies merely in |
| 1:06.4 | persuading people, but in transforming their idea of normal. |
| 1:11.5 | I don't know about you but recently things don't seem altogether normal. |
| 1:20.0 | Political parties once considered fringe are now mainstream. |
| 1:24.5 | Attitudes perceived as extreme are now everywhere. |
| 1:29.4 | Ideas that were common sense are under question. |
| 1:36.6 | Take Jeremy Corbyn. He disagreed with his own party's idea of normality |
| 1:40.7 | so often that he was one of its most frequent rebels. But now he's its leader. |
| 1:47.0 | In Europe, right-wing parties considered fringe just a couple of years ago and how major forces and parliaments. |
| 1:55.0 | Or in the case of Italy, ruling together within anarkic left-wing movement I had always |
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