By Lawrence Dietz, adjunct faculty, Intelligence Studies at American Military University
The U.S. media has worked itself into quite the frenzy lambasting the dentist who purportedly paid more than $50,000 to hunt and kill Cecil, the iconic lion in Zimbabwe.
One of the more interesting takes on this story had nothing to do with the man who killed the lion or on the big-game hunting business in general. Rather, an article entitled, “If Cecil Circus: If He Only Had A Gun” had a simple, yet intriguing premise:
“With limited choices for news, even in the 24-hour news cycle, why do we even have a story about a lion? In no imaginable circumstance is this lion relevant enough to make it to the front page of anyone’s paper when there are major drastic issues to be faced on a daily basis.”
The article goes on to become a very enlightening piece on psychological operations (PSYOP) targeting. The author paints a case that appealing to the basic instincts of the small number of media companies with millions of followers can actually result in a massive impact on human behavior.
The article postulates that all the media attention won’t help Cecil or any future big-game targets. That’s not the point. The point is that a small coterie of media companies control mass impressions, which is critical in PSYOP targeting.
The author argues that the way to eliminate future victims like Cecil is to use our pocketbooks to stop supporting countries that commit far greater atrocities against animals:
“If you really care about Cecil, stop buying things made in China because while one dentist killed one lion, the vast majority of wildlife are killed for weird remedies in China. Or maybe you should stop buying things made in Japan, since the Japanese routinely slaughter thousands of dolphins for meat. They would listen to the loss of money. That is the one value system most of the world can agree on and it is the point to how it all works. The media shows you something to make money, and they distract you from other things that might lose them money. The truth has no monetary value.”
The sad reality is that when the outrage about Cecil dies down, as it inevitably will, the media will move on to the next news item that can incite a public outcry to keep us distracted and the ratings high.
A similar version of this article first appeared on the PSYOP Regimental Blog
About the Author: Professor Lawrence Dietz has more than 30 years of diversified military and commercial sector experience. Dietz retired as a Colonel from the USAR in 2002, having held command and staff assignments in PSYOP and military intelligence to include platoon, company and battalion command. He also served as the Deputy Commander for the NATO PSYOP Task Force (CJICTF) in Bosnia. Specialties include PSYOP, information operations, strategic intelligence and tactical intelligence. His commercial sector experience has included market intelligence, marketing, customer support and legal work dealing with information technology. Professor Dietz is an adjunct faculty member teaching within the Intelligence Studies program at American Military University. You may contact him at Lawrence.Dietz@mycampus.amu.edu.