"The handlingaware and intelligent,of opinions and the habits of the masses plays an important role in a democratic society, those who master this social device constitute an invisible power that truly directs the country.
We are largely governed by men of whom we know nothing but who are capable of shape our mentality, guide our tastes,suggest what to think».

He wrote like this way back 1928 Freud’s grandson, Edward Bernays, considered the founder of Public Relations and the ideologue of the current ones spin doctor. We can consider Bernays the "father" of the so-called "news wizards” as the journalist and writer Marcello Foa baptized them in his essay of the same name, that is, the father of those communication experts who manipulate public opinion to obtain consensus. Own Foa, now President of RAI, was a guest on Friday 11 January with me and my friend Marco Castelli of the Accademia Diciannove near the Space ONE to talk about fake news and media credibility.

Propaganda according to Edward Bernays

In his essay Propaganda, Bernays explained that in democratic systems the propaganda it is essential to "give shape to chaos": to prevent democracy from leading us to chaos and social paralysis, an “invisible government” manipulates, opinions, the habits and choices of citizens, leaving them theillusion of being free. The techniques used by those in power to shape public opinion were invented and developed gradually over the years, as society became more complex and the need for an invisible government proved increasingly necessary".

Bernays' lesson, in a nutshell, is that

today we prefer to combine repressive methods with“gentle” manipulationaimed at making citizens believe that they are free to choose when instead their decisions are oriented from above. No regime, but not even any democracy, it can sustain itself without the propaganda for which the mainstream media and entertainment in general act as a docile sounding board.