Fake news as a weapon of persuasion

Our study is qualitative research. It is a content analysis of more than 2,500 European and American posters of war propaganda identifying modern principles of persuasion and forms of discourse. The analysis of the themes demonstrates that the techniques used one hundred years ago to convince civilians to enlist had enormous potential for development to such a degree that they were adopted by modern political and commercial persuasion. Therefore, we can consider the propagandists of the Great War as modern spin doctors. The idea evolved after reading Propaganda (1928) by Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud. This is an astonishing book; it provides illuminating interpretations both for understanding of war propaganda -not just for the Great War- and for the commercial discourse of which Bernays became a promoting agent. During the Great War the propagandists used emotional and rational stratagems to convince volunteers to leave to the front. Among these, the fake news played an important role in the production of the posters that served to motivate and galvanize people to defend the ideals of the war. It was an organized disinformation action because, especially for American people, the war was very far in kilometres and in interest. Fake news has two different factors: wrong or unreasonable argumentations and false information used as premises. The success of the posters was that of moulding the agenda-setting and the opinion of citizens in order to increase the enlistment to defend the identity of the nation

Joe Biden’s Inauguration Speech: a Persuasive Narrative

In Joe Biden s inauguration speech we can find standard emotional and rational stratagems that form its persuasive strategy to obtain the public s approval The techniques and themes used by the President are the same identified in the modern principles of commercial advertising of the persuasion theory and of the propaganda discourses in particular from war propaganda These techniques and themes consist in revealing a problem in order to suggest the solution the repetition and the simplicity of the message the use of a colloquial language and of significant and easily understandable symbols the participation or the quote of testimonials the bandwagon effect the necessity of provoking emotional responses the plain folks appeal the card-stacking and the use of glittering words The attention to the choice of the most persuasive words to express the author s ideas to defend an ideal and to restore American identity is impressive These stereotyped formulas are also used to simplify situations with no need of argumentatio

Climate change will increase the potential conflict between skiing and high-elevation bird species in the Alps

Aim: To assess the extent of the possible future conflict between skiing and biodiversity driven by climate change, human adaptation and species' distribution shifts. Location: Italian Alps. Methods: We assessed the extent of the possible future conflict between skiing and biodiversity by predicting locations likely to be suitable for both skiing and for high-elevation birds in the Italian Alps by modelling ski-piste and species presence in relation to climate, topography and habitat. Potential conflict was assessed by comparing the overlap of areas projected as suitable for skiing and those suitable for four high-elevation bird species under different scenarios of climate change for the year 2050. Results: Areas suitable for both ski-pistes and birds were projected to contract towards upper elevations, which for birds resulted in an average decrease of 58\u201367% of suitable area. The degree of overlap between species and skiing was projected to increase, especially for the most valuable sites, that is, those hosting the most species, or the most threatened species. Main conclusions: Given the alarming range contractions forecast for high-elevation species, and the potential impact of ski-pistes on those species, it is essential to safeguard high-mountain grasslands against negative effects of ski development. An effective conservation strategy at a landscape scale needs to consider prevention of ski-piste construction in sites of high conservation value. The approach developed here provides a means by which such a strategy could be formulated, and which could be potentially applied elsewhere to investigate the effect of human adaptation on biodiversity

L’umorismo in pubblicità: Una valutazione dell’impatto dell’umorismo nella pubblicità a scopo sociale.

This thesis aims to discover the motivations leading a company to communicate through humour. Humour is seen as a language in order to understand where, how and when it is usefully used. After an historical and philosophical introduction (Chapter 2), whose purpose is to show the most important schools of thought which developed over the centuries (and sometimes also overlapped) to explain the elusive nature of humour. This study will then explore the modern trends in advertising strategies (Chapter 3) and focus on humorous advertising and the justification of its social and commercial drivers Chapter 4). In Chapter 5, we will study the sense of humour itself and the psycho-social factors of the ideal target. In Chapter 6, we will introduce social communication, taking into account its objectives and themes. Based on past research - we will also study the various codes of expression, analysing the motivations and effects of the humorous language and the “fear arousing” language (Chapter 7). We will then focus our attention in Chapter 8 on the use of humour in social advertising campaigns against smoking through a survey in which we analysed the reactions of 300 university students to a humorous message compared to another one generating anxiety (stressing the negative effects of smoking). The results helped us to draw indications on the efficiency of both means of communication from cognitive, emotional and behavioural points of view. The present analysis has required the use of interdisciplinary analytical tools and in-depth studies in various disciplines: economy, marketing, semiology and sociology, psychology and philosophy. Unfortunately, often these tools could only give an incomplete answer or a reference to other studies. It was therefore inevitable to keep our attention on some aspects and to ignore others: this kind of freedom is certainly possible while treating a theme such as humour.L’obiettivo della tesi è di individuare le motivazioni che spingono un’azienda a comunicare mediante l’umorismo. L’umorismo viene considerato in chiave strumentale al fine di poter trarre indicazioni su dove, come e quando sia più utile optare per tale linguaggio. Dopo un’introduzione storico-filosofica (cap.2) volta a mostrare le principali correnti di pensiero che nei secoli si sono succedute (talvolta sovrapponendosi) per comprendere la sfuggente natura dell’umorismo, lo studio prosegue discutendo le odierne linee di tendenza delle strategie pubblicitarie (cap.3), per poi focalizzarsi sulla pubblicità umoristica e le motivazioni aziendali e sociali che la giustificano (cap.4). In seguito (cap.5) trattiamo il senso dello humour e i fattori psico-sociali del target ideale. Con il capitolo 6 introduciamo la comunicazione sociale, considerandone obiettivi e temi. Quindi affrontiamo i suoi codici espressivi per analizzare, sulla base di ricerche passate, le motivazioni e gli effetti del linguaggio umoristico e di uno di tipo “fear arousing” (cap.7). La nostra attenzione si sofferma poi (cap. 8) sull’utilizzo dell’umorismo nelle pubblicità sociali contro il fumo mediante un’indagine empirica con la quale abbiamo confrontato le reazioni di 300 studenti universitari a un messaggio umoristico con uno che genera ansia (preconizzando le conseguenze del fumo) per trarre indicazioni sull’efficacia delle due comunicazioni dal punto di vista cognitivo, affettivo e comportamentale. La disamina ha sollecitato strumenti analitici interdisciplinari e approfondimenti di diversa natura: economica e di marketing, semiologica e sociologica, psicologica e filosofica, ma spesso questi hanno potuto solo trovarvi un accenno o un rinvio. Ci è stato quindi inevitabile soffermarci su alcuni aspetti e trascurarne altri: una libertà che un tema come l’umorismo di sicuro ammette

Genotype-phenotype correlation study in 364 osteogenesis imperfecta Italian patients

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare genetic disorder of the connective tissue and 90% of cases are due to dominant mutations in COL1A1 and COL1A2 genes. To increase OI disease knowledge and contribute to patient follow-up management, a homogeneous Italian cohort of 364 subjects affected by OI types I-IV was evaluated. The study population was composed of 262 OI type I, 24 type II, 39 type III, and 39 type IV patients. Three hundred and nine subjects had a type I collagen affecting function mutations (230 in α1(I) and 79 in α2(I)); no disease-causing changes were noticed in 55 patients. Compared with previous genotype-phenotype OI correlation studies, additional observations arose: a new effect for α1- and α2-serine substitutions has been pointed out and heart defects, never considered before, resulted associated to quantitative mutations (P = 0.043). Moreover, some different findings emerged if compared with previous literature; especially, focusing the attention on the lethal form, no association with specific collagen regions was found and most of variants localized in the previously reported "lethal clusters" were causative of OI types I-IV. Some discrepancies have been highlighted also considering the "50-55 nucleotides rule," as well as the relationship between specific collagen I mutated region and the presence of dentinogenesis imperfecta and/or blue sclera. Despite difficulties still present in defining clear rules to predict the clinical outcome in OI patients, this study provides new pieces for completing the puzzle, also thanks to the inclusion of clinical signs never considered before and to the large number of OI Italian patients

Temporary caging results in reduced levels of circulating melatonin in migratory robins.

The hormone melatonin, a main component of the avian circadian system, plays an important role in the physiological transitions that accompany the activation of the migratory phenotype in passerine birds. Most small passerines migrate at night when circulating concentrations of melatonin are elevated. Previous work measured nocturnal melatonin levels of migratory birds only in captive animals, because free-living individuals are usually caught at day time. In this study, we compared nocturnal melatonin levels of European robins (Erithacus rubecula) caught during the day and held in cages overnight with those of birds that were caught at night and sampled immediately. We found that circulating melatonin at night was lower in birds held in cages compared to birds that were actively migrating. This result suggests that temporary caging affects the melatonin system and that in nature melatonin levels could be generally higher than those previously described by studies on captive birds

Social Media and Large Carnivores : Sharing Biased News on Attacks on Humans

The Internet and social media have profoundly changed the way the public receives and transmits news. The ability of the web to quickly disperse information both geographically and temporally allows social media to reach a much wider audience compared to traditional mass media. A powerful role is played by sharing, as millions of people routinely share news on social media platforms, influencing each other by transmitting their mood and feelings to others through emotional contagion. Thus, social media has become crucial in driving public perception and opinion. Humans have an instinctive fear of large carnivores, but such a negative attitude may be amplified by news media presentations and their diffusion on social media. Here, we investigated how reports of predator attacks on humans published in online newspapers spread on social media. By means of multi-model inference, we explored the contribution of four factors in driving the number of total shares (NTS) of news reports on social media: the graphic/sensationalistic content, the presence of images, the species, as well as the newspaper coverage. According to our results, the information delivered by social media is highly biased toward a graphic/sensationalistic view of predators. Thus, such negative coverage might lead to an unjustified and amplified fear in the public with consequent lower tolerance toward predators and decrease in the support for conservation plans. However, because social media represents a powerful communication tool, its role might be reversed to positive if used appropriately. Thus, constant engagement of scientists on social media would be needed to both disseminate more accurate information on large carnivores and stem the tide of misinformation before its widespread diffusion, a crucial step for effective predator conservation.Peer reviewe