515- Aliens Reported Gambling in Vegas, Media Abuse Cited (Free)

Imagine inventing a news story and then launching it across all news and internet outlets. Now imagine you have access to search engine stats and social media data. In real-time you would be able to deduce not only the reach of the fiction, but an accurate percentage of those who accept the narrative. Welcome to the digital era and the tectonic shift in the power of messaging. Back in 1947 the bogus Roswell incident was created and launched into public consciousness. The message penetration could only be guessed at and after a short time the little green men were forgotten. To revive the mind-bending narrative required the story be re-published, and books written, which happened in the 1970s. Fast forward back to present. Nationwide news, and then worldwide news, report aliens crash land in Las Vegas, complete with footage of a weird fireball in the sky sporting a fireworks blue hue. No disc was found. No aliens were filmed. But that was not the goal. The goal was achieved via instantaneous reporting accurately disclosing story penetration, and then after the fact, how many minds had been sucked into the narrative. And herein lies the problem and danger of news and social media in the digital era. It is a bit like fishing and those who own the hooks know in real-time when they have hooked a whopper. But until then… they keep chumming the water.