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“When we can’t remember the source of our information, we’re in bad shape. Believe me, you can find information to support any viewpoint you want.”
—??? in From Naked Ape To Superspecies by David Suzuki
The source of a message can have as much relavence as the ideas it conveys. The messenger is the person or group identified as the source of a message.
People consider who says something as much as what they say, so the relationship between the messenger and the audience is vitally important. What the audience thinks of the messenger is a message in and of itself. Messengers may be warmly received by one audience and shunned by another for a variety of reasons.
Source Reliability
People evaluate message reliability by what they know of the messenger’s reputation for truthfulness or bias. The source of a message can have a direct bearing for recipients of the message. People are more receptive to ideas from trusted friends than from suspicious outsiders
Second-Hand Information
Many times, you pass on information you hear from other people. Sometimes you pass on information without endorsing it at all. In these.
Challenging Sources
Sometimes someone will say something and you will challenge them to name their source, especially if they are saying something outlandish or difficult to believe.
Messenger-Audience Relationships
The messenger’s pre-existing reputation influences how audiences interpret their message. Audiences who haven’t heard of the message may instead react to first impressions they have of the messenger if they are presented with information.
Celebrity Spokespeople
Many celebrities use their reputation to front for a group that needs a credible messenger. Lots of socially-minded celebrities serve activist groups as high-profile promoters. Many take bribes to hawk corporate products.
Messenger Accountability
People are held accountable for the messages they spread. People who don’t like a message may by extension dislike the messenger. even from the past. This is how public figures like politicians get in trouble when someone spreads a message pointing to their own past message.
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Messenger Examples
Israeli Refuseniks
"We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people. We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense. The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them."
Veterans For Peace
IMF Economist Joe Stiglitz
"They’ll say the IMF is arrogant... They’ll say the IMF’s economic ‘remedies’ often make things worse – turning slowdowns into recessions and recessions into depressions. And they’ll have a point. I was chief economist at the World Bank from 1996 until last November, during the gravest global economic crisis in a half-century. I saw how the IMF, in tandem with the U.S. Treasury Department, responded. And I was appalled".
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