Surviving the Information Storm

8/6/2019 Surviving the Information Storm

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Surviving the Information StormHow Not to be Overwhelmed by Info, Data, and Sources

By Robert A. Pritchett Copyright Robert A. Pritchett March 7, 2010

All Rights Reserved

Life in the new millennium is going to be different, fromhere on out. Mind-bending opportunities are beingrevealed daily. Information and knowledge is everywhere.

If something can be known, it will be known or it will befound out and published. We have access tonewspapers, magazines, articles, books, tapes, CDs,

videos, DVDs, TV, Cable, Satellites, PDFs, MP3s,Podcasts, and, of course, the Internet. If you want toknow, now, more than ever, you can know (but you stillmight have to pay something to find out).

As wonderful and wild as the Internet is, it really doesntsolve all of your information acquiring problems. Toquickly see this, all you have to do is insert a topic, anidea, or word into a search engine and click you willbe presented with thousands and thousands of links to

thousands and thousands of websites. You know youcant visit and read all of them how will you selectthe ones that you will visit and read?

As I see it, the problem has shifted from how to find


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information to how to cut down and limit the amountof information that you have to sort thru. And when I saylimit I dont mean cut out or eliminate your access to

information; I mean develop a strategy or system toquickly scan, select, and evaluate the informationalcandidates to be read and used.Time-Saving strategiesmust be a component of any Informational ProcessingSystem. The amount of information out there is trulyoverwhelming, but its never enough.

A personal information processing system comprised ofprinciples, experiences, and scanning skills, optimized forthe way you live your life will lead you to the knowledgeand information that you desire and require. However,even after you acquire the information, it must beevaluated and labeled before possible use: correct,incorrect, misleading, inaccurate or morefrightening, disinformation which could be worse thanno information. Sooo, you really need three (3) systems

a system to acquire information, a system to evaluateinformation, and a system to use the information. Youneed a vision -- you need a plan.

It would take a book and a seminar to convey all of thepoints and implications of the preceding paragraph: wordshave meaning and implications. And it just so happensthat I am completing work on a book on the topic ofrestructuring your thinking and decision making


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processes. This article addresses some of the issuescovered in the book:

Mental Systems / Human SystemsTools for Life featuring CELS*Thinking

Please visit www.CreativeMindworkshop.com

There is a tendency in Western Civilizations to alwayslook for a quick and cheap fix to any problem. This is not

automatically bad, but it certainly isnt automatically good.Oftentimes, when trying to fix problems quickly, scantconsideration is given to considering past and presentissues, the cultural influences, who the major players(actors, i.e. decision-makers) are and were, and pastattempts at repairing this problem. We at CMW believethat a certain amount of time and effort must beexpended determining the scope, history, past attempts,and issues surrounding the problem under consideration in this case, discovering, interpreting, processing,evaluation, and using information from diverse sources.

The goal is to help cut out (select) the information youwant and need from the Informational Storm we

Americans must endure everyday.

Values Clarification What is your Worldview?

Napoleon Bonaparte, the 17th century French Emperor,


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claimed that his mind was like a chest of drawers, andeach subject is stored neatly in its special place. And whenhe was through thinking about a certain subject, he would

close the drawer on that subject and would open anotherdrawer for another topic; all thoughts about the formertopic safely tucked away from view and interference withthe current thinking topic. An interesting concept, dontyou think? But is this practical or desirable? How does

your head operate?

Ive met people with one-track minds. And Ive metpeople whose creative thinking links everything in the

world with everything else in the world. I believe thatboth approaches have their values and weaknesses. But animportant question that you must ask yourself is, do Ihave a system, a strategy, a method for comprehending,interpreting, and understanding the information that iscoming at me? The last place you want to find yourself,is drowning in a sea of information, from multiplesources, recorded and stored in multiple formats, with noideas of how you are going to separate out and find thefacts or information, or enlightenment that you need.

Your Worldview is your most personal, intimate viewof the world around you. It includes what you thinkabout yourself, your family and friends, your relatives,your country, your world, your job and career, politics,education, art, sex, health, facts, knowledge, language,


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science, ministers, officials, police, military, friendship,lying, truth-telling, history, competition, discovery, sports,entertainment, history, God, Jesus Christ, spirituality, and

religion. These are your truest thoughts and feelings aboutyour life and the world around you and in you. You maynever tell anyone about these beliefs and thoughts, butyou use these to perceive, interpret, and understand life,reality, and everything. Your worldview is thoughts,feelings, insights, and impressions that you use tounderstand yourself, life, and the world.

Most people are taught a basic Worldview by their parentsand family. It is further influenced by friends, education,church, and the ubiquitous so-called Mainstream Media(MSM). Businesses, Organizations of all stripes, clubs,political parties, and various media outlets all have agendasand messages that they want you to internalize and use tomake your all-important life decisions, such as howyou spend your money, what causes you will support, andhow you will vote! Unless you take charge and imposeorder and a system on this information storm, your headand heart will be as a cork bobbing on the ocean wavesduring a tempest. And the place to start is with your

Worldview.

Your worldview must be periodically re-examinedand re-evaluated. There are things that you have


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believed since you were a child; but how many of thosethings are still true? {Think Santa Claus?}

LIFECYCLE OF A NEWS STORY OR POLITICALISSUE

The initial news reporting on some issue or story maypresent a certain picture, impression, and understanding;but later when more facts come in, the reality of thesituation has completely changed. Lets take Global

Climate Change (a PR upgrade from the term GlobalWarming). Although they deny collusion, all of the MSMNews outlets have continuously reported and amplifiedthe global warming hysteria, repeating Al Gores claimsthat the debate is over. {By the way, do you remember

when that debate was taking place in the country?}

First, are we not talking about Science? Okay then, whereis all of the scientific data showing that global warming isnow taking places? There is none! The data that thehockey stick computer model was based on has beendestroyed.

{Enter => climategate scandal into a search enginelike Google or Bing.}

However, President Obama and many other Leftistorganizations are still demanding punishing tax increases


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and forfeitures of individual liberties all in the name of anon-existent crisis which is actually a hoax, a money andpower grab, to punish the American People, transferring

our money and freedoms overseas.You want moreproof?

What percentage of the Earths atmosphere is CarbonDioxide? 10% . . . 25% . . . 50% . . .? The answer is 0.03percent. Thats right! Carbon Dioxide is less than one

percent of the Earths atmosphere.Even if we tripled

the amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere, there wouldstill be less than one percent of the Earth atmosphereCarbon Dioxide. Thats right, thats the reason that theyalways discuss the amount of carbon dioxide in theatmosphere in tons to disguise and to deceive the

American Public.

Thats right, our so-called Best and Brightest havedecided to pull a fast one on the citizens of the UnitedStates, and our President is helping them. Our so-calledElites, East-West- Coast-Ivy-League privileged andeducated, and their fellow travelers, are currently engagedin a Major Money and Power Grab. And by using

carefully designed messages, repeated without question oranalysis by the so-called mainstream media, the Elitesare about to vacuum huge sums of money out of thepocket of the American Taxpaying Public. Right now, thenext big government policy issue to be considered by


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Congress is the green jobs proposal called Cap-and-Trade or as its PR upgrade now calls it TheAmerican Power Act, which will double electric bills

and force gasoline prices above $5.00 per gallon, or more.Watch for it.

Check for yourself put the following into Google orBing:

climategate scandalwhat percentage of the Earths atmosphere is

carbon dioxideCap and Trade or American Power Act

Every major belief that you hold in your head and heartshould be re-examined in light of the new reality. Whathave you learned in recent years that has helped you tomake better quality decisions (BQD), or to function betterin your life, on your job, or at your school?

Many issues that are reported by the so-called mainstreammedia outlets are reported from a liberal worldview, aperspective that you yourself might hold. But if you wantto get to the bottom of anythinking task, you must

examine that issue not only from a liberal viewpoint, but aconservative viewpoint, and/or a moderate viewpoint, ora Biblical viewpoint, or a scientific viewpoint, or a logical

viewpoint, or an emotional viewpoint, or a spiritualviewpoint. We have discovered that after exposing your


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mind to multiple viewpoints, then you will be able to seemore facts, more implications, and more insightsleading to a deeper understanding of the thinking task.

So the first step toward building a newthinking system,a new information evaluation and processing system is re-examining your worldview! Then study the informationcoming at you from multiple viewpoints before settling onjust one, for that particular question! Of course, thisprocess must be repeated for each newthinking task.

Have you re-examined your Worldview to insure that it isserving you well? Has your Worldview ever mislead youbefore? Has your Worldview helped you manage yourmoney more skillfully? Has your Worldview helped you tograduate from school, gain the job you wanted, gained yourespect from friends and associates? Can you trust your

worldview all of the time or must you abandon it whenyou need to think about certain subjects? Is your

Worldview consistent? Does your Worldview need to becompletely re-worked?

Sources: Who is Presenting the Information?

Another important area of information processing thatyou should carefully consider so that you can successfullyweather the Information Storm is Sources.


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Where is the information coming from? Is the sourcetrustworthy? Does the source have an agenda, somethingthat they want to accomplish? Do you agree with their

agenda? Does this news or information source present theinformation in a consistently honest, balanced, andanalytical fashion? I have found that locating severalsources of information liberal, conservative,moderate, spiritual, scientific, and logical is animportant first step when beginning any thinkingtask. After informing yourself about the various basic

viewpoints, you can begin the process of evaluating,interpreting, accepting, rejecting, and/or modifying howto view this information.

Interestingly enough, this seems to be a point that thePresident of the United States takes seriously. On morethan a couple of occasions, the President seems to want tosteer the American Public to his approved informationsources. Or he wants to influence the reporting of majornews and information outlets. Now its obvious, PresidentObama, like most of his predecessors, doesnt want thenews media second-guessing his decisions and policies.Nor does he want any other group, including the news

media, second-guessing, analyzing, dissecting, andevaluating the truthfulness and accuracy of his messages but this is exactly what the Founding Fathers of thisgreat country expected. Their belief and confidence wasthat free and diverse reporting, by multiple news


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organizations, holding multiple and diverse politicalviewpoints, would best serve the public and help toprotect freedom and liberty.

Think it through, the President of the United States is ainformation source with an agenda. So are the New

York Times, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News,MSNBC News, and Fox News.What if a newsorganization has the same agenda as the President ofthe United States? What if a news organization has a

different agenda including getting a more in depthunderstanding of the numbers that the government isreporting, discovering if those numbers are, indeed,accurate, and if the reported implications are valid? Whatif a news organization investigates a government policyand discovers that it isnt cost effective, or worse, that itisnt working at all? Should that be reported?

There should be a basic tension between the news mediaand government leaders Journalists are doing a job forthe public that we cannot easily do for ourselves. I fearthat in this particular political climate, the so-called mainstream media has adopted the old Soviet

Union model of Journalism, supporting and parrotingonly the governments official position no factchecking, no investigation, no peeking behind the curtains

only yea and okay! This is scary and dangerous to thesurvival of a free and prosperous people and their society.


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Evaluating information sources is a complicated, difficulttask that must be done. And for this function, you must

not allow so-called brand name news outlets or star-powernews presenters persuade you without supportingevidence. Since the 9-11 attack on America, the world haschanged socially, politically, economically, culturally, andspiritually; many of the old standards and values havebeen swept away.You must seek to perceive theagenda and value system that a news or information

source uses, and how that agenda and value systemaffects how they present information. And, mostimportantly, you must do this on every news orinformational story they present because differentreporters, editors, and producers work on each story.

Bias, slant, and spin have several opportunities to taint thereporting of a news story, especially a political news story.First, journalists gather the raw information from varioussources documents, photos, and individuals(government officials, law enforcement, actors, players,citizens, students, workers). Next, they must process thatinformation thru their personal evaluation system, based

on past experiences, context against which this event tookplace, and human intuition. {Can you see how onesWorldview might influence a Journalists reporting,or even your understanding of the reporting?} Butafter the reporter hands over his or her story, it then goes


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thru an organizational evaluation process which may ormay not add bias to a story. Sometimes the Publisher orEditors of a news organization may decide to hide or bury

a news story because of bias, politics, or fear.

Heres an example of a news story being buried or hiddenbecause of bias and politics.The collapse of the UnitedNations Human-Caused Global Climate Changestory Climate Gate.Within the past few months, sincethe release of hidden and suppressed information about

climate change data, eMails about the activities of keyscientists, and the flimsy underpinnings of the wholeargument careers are being destroyed, and a global scamhas been revealed. Lies, fabrications, lost or destroyeddata, and character assassinations this story has all of thejuicy ingredients (except sex) that we Americans love inour scandals. However, because the so-calledmainstream media has chosen a side, they are

working to deceive the American Public on this issue.The MSM are refusing to report on this importanttopic and are still trying to prop up the collapsingbelief in and support for the Human-Caused Global

Warming Theory and Agenda.

The so-called mainstream medias decision to try to keepAmericans in the dark on this Global Scandal could havecatastrophic consequences for your life. Right now,President Barak Obama and the Democratic Party are


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planning a massive tax increase on the American Public(up to $3,000 per family a year in increased Energy Costs)called Cap-and-Trade, and the so-called mainstream

media is working continually to support this effort.[Author Note: Cap-and-Trade supporters are currentlytrying to repackage this job-killing, freedom-stealing,personal-wealth destroying bill under the new nameAmerican Power Act.]

Many news stories start off saying one thing, by certain

persons. However, over time what is being said, and bywho, may change greatly. Therefore to do a reallyprofessional job of evaluating information sources, youneed a News & Information EvaluationNotebook. To understand most news stories, you needto look at the historical context and background against

which the event or action took place; and who are themajor players and actors, and what is their backgroundand relationship to the story.

Creating and Using yourNews & Information Evaluation Notebook

So you can observe and evaluate, over time, the qualityand integrity of a news and information source, be theytalking heads, news anchors, professors, teachers,ministers, friends, family, professionals, or politicians, youneed a method, a way to track the changes in a story, by


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who, and why. And over time, your News & InformationEvaluation Notebook will reveal a source to be either fair,balanced, accurate, and true or misleading to an agenda.

Some sources may be revealed to be only useful forcertain kinds of information and not others.

This notebook could be as simple as a steno padnotebook or a three-hole notebook or you could have adigital notebook on your computer where you storeinformation about the quality of your news and

information sources,what they said and when. Thepoint is to have a place where you can write down yourobservations about the news, sources, messages, accuracy,propaganda, and agendas. By documenting news orinformation stories, what was originally reported, itssources, its facts, its dates,you will have a personalfact track to retrace. How does the story change overtime? Do the sources change their claims? Have more ornew facts come out? Is there a difference in thereporting on this story from a different news source?

A News & Information Evaluation Notebook isnecessary because we cannot remember everything that

the talking heads said. A story might come out onMonday and the talking heads (the news reporters,anchormen, anchorwomen, and politicians) will spin it acertain way. Later that week, the news presenters may bespinning the story a different way would you remember


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the shift and change? Could you detect why there was ashift and change? A News & Information EvaluationNotebook may very well reveal something about

your personal thinking and reasoning processes thatwill help you make better quality decisions (BQD) inthe future. But it might also reveal something about thetrustworthiness of the information source.

Case-in-Point: We all were shocked at the destruction ofHurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans and

Mississippi in 2005. Most of the so-calledmainstream media reported that much crime andmayhem was taking place in New OrleansSuperdome, and more than 10,000 peoples were killed

rapes, robberies, and murders were commonoccurrences. Well, it turned out that all of that reporting

was false. Why do you think that this was reported? Wasthere an agenda? Can you think of other cases where theso-called mainstream medias reporting was so wrong?How about their reporting of the most recent Middle Eastconflict Israel vs. Hezbollah. Is this a good example ofbias reporting, or does this make the case for examiningsources for their agenda?

Tuning Out the Din

As Americans, there is constant assault on our senses, aconstant push to think a certain way, feel a certain way,


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buy certain things, support certain causes, vote for acertain party. These persuasive messages are everywhere:billboards, newspapers, fliers, radio, TV, the Internet,

clothing, trucks, and buses. I believe one of the mostsneaky hidden persuader is the 10 to 30-second Newsupdate; the way this works is during commercial breakson a network show, they put on this talking headjournalist to read the latest news headlines on severalstories of their choosing. By using this technique they canrepeat and drum into your head a viewpoint that they

want you to internalize. Of course, the news update doesnot have time for the whole story or opposing viewpoint,but the design of the headline is to invoke a certainemotion and encourage an acceptance of a certain

viewpoint. Im sure you will notice other, similarexamples.

My fellow Americans, our heads and hearts are underconstant assault from the electronic information sources.

We need thinking and reflecting time. Time away fromour iPods, MP3 players, radios, CDs, and televisions.

Times of quiet in our homes and cars, so we can reflecton what we really think and feel about the information

that is coming at us. It is during times of silence whencreative thoughts and ideas can leap to the front ofour consciousness.And its during times of silence whenour true thoughts and emotions can be ascertained.


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Standing Up for Your Info Selections

After you re-examine your Worldview, which controls

how you view and interpret the world, your views onsome subjects or issues may begin to shift and change.

After you begin to re-examine your information sources,over time, by using a News & Information EvaluationNotebook, you may begin to trust different informationsources. As you Free Your Mind from the constant dinof messengers screaming at you for your attention and

action, you may begin to feel different. You may changeyour positions on politics, sports, education,entertainment, opinion, news, and life. And if you do,your friends might think that youve been brainwashed.But if you create a systematic way of evaluatinginformation and use it on a regular basis, you shouldhave confidence in your new positions and stand yourground unless it can be demonstrated (withoutscreaming and name calling) that you are incorrect. Weshould always be prepared to change our position onsubjects, issues, policies, or decisions to reflect truth andreality yet not submitting to screaming opinions, norsheepishly conforming just to get along.

This day could be the beginning of something big in yourlife. You may gain from this exercise, a brand new

worldview and a brand new world, plucked from the


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Information Storm.

Information coming at you should be systematicallyevaluated. Heres a basic consideration structurefor creating your own evaluation system:

(1) Use your worldview to strip away the spin, theobvious lies, the misrepresentations, and fuzzy clarityfrom the information and messages that are coming at

you. Do you really, really want to know the truth even if it might upset your applecart, so to speak? Ihad a poster once that said The truth will make you free,but first it will make you miserable. Ive found that to betrue, oftentimes.

(2) Use Logic to evaluate the reasonableness ofwhat is being presented to you. You must make a habitof using logic as a required part of your personalinformation evaluation system.Ask yourself: Is thereanyway that this information and message could be true?

Then ask yourself: Is there anyway that this informationand message could be false? Does the information

presenter have an agenda, or are they presenting multipleviewpoints and understandings? Does the information ormessage make sense? Are they trying to trick you? Haveyou seen anything like this in the Past?


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(3) Check your News & Information EvaluationNotebook. Are these messages similar to things thatyouve seen or experienced in the Past. Did you learn

about this in school before? Have you read any books orarticles on this subject before? How does this relate toanything in the recent past or ancient history? Based onyour recordings to your News & Information EvaluationNotebook, is this news source reliable and trustworthy?Has this story evolved into something else? Have thefacts changed?

(4) Have you checked with additional sources to geta wider view and understanding of the message andinformation that you are being presented. Is theinformation source trying to inflame your emotions toby-pass your personal evaluation system, to make yourush to an understanding and position? What have youdone to get additional background information about themessage or information coming at you? What have youdone to get additional background information about theMessenger?

(5) Have you consider the information and/or message

in silence before choosing a final position? Dont beafraid of the Silence. In America, if you dont want to,you dont have to have a single quiet moment; however, Ithink that you pay a price for that. Reconsider your

worldview in silence. Reconsider your life in silence.


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Unless you are simply listening to a familiar instrumentalpiece of music, there are messages imbedded in the song persuading you, brainwashing you, attempting to make up

your mind about something. Free Your Mind. This ishow you weather the Information Storm.

(6) Our most God-like quality is your ability tochoose. And this is what is under constant assault.Our Freedom of Speech, our Freedom to Decide forourselves is hateful to many people, including members of

various Groups, Organizations, and Movements,including many persons in our Government. What is theunderlining purpose or agenda of those Groups,Organizations, or Movements? If, for example, a group isagainst the use of fossil fuels, what do you think about theinformation that they would give you about Oil and Gas?

What about Hate Crime Laws? Supporters or Opponents?

(7) Search Engine Results Screening Tips.Whenever you put a word or phrase into a search engine,it normally returns hundreds and thousands of resultsposted on several pages. Businesses, Organizations,Governments, and Individuals can pay to insure that

their websites appear on the first page of results. Noproblem. But you need to know this. However, whatabout the rest of the result pages? Heres an approach Iveused with some success: Look at every one of the first 5to 7 result pages; then I skip several result pages (for


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example, Ill look at page numbers 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 . . . or 10,15, 20 . . . ). No, Im not going to every website that is onthe result page! I read and evaluate each summary on the

result page, and I look at its URL (its internet address,www.---.com) to get some idea of who is offering theinformation. With search engine results, I believe inexploring serendipity sometimes you never know

what type of discovery you will find. But remember yourcommitment to getting a more complete picture of reality,look for websites representing multiple sides of an issue,

from trusted sources.

(8) Beware of Celebrity Pitchmen and Women:Celebrities are chosen to get instant credibility,recognition, and to draw interest to a product,organization, or cause. The celebrity might be an actor,sports hero, a writer, a movie star, a teacher, a politician,or even the President of the United States but the

purpose of using them to deliver the message is toinvoke in you a positive emotional feeling, and thatfeeling is suppose to make you more likely and willing toaccept the message they are sending, and to make you takea certain action. Sure, take note of the Celebrity and their

message but do not give them a free pass process theirmessage and information thru your normal informationevaluation system make them prove their point!


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(9) Your Personal News Update: When following astory, trend, or event once you believe you have a clear,fundamental understanding of the basic components of a

story, this means that now you can just focus on the newand different information about a story. This means thatyou no longer need to do a complete re-cap every timethat you want to track the progress of a story. You canjust update your understanding with just the new facts

whats new, whats more, or whats different?

(10) Beware of Push Polls. A push poll is a deviceand technique used by news media agencies to pushcertain information and ideas into the publicsconsciousness, the news cycle, and various news stories.Of course, the news outlets would never call them by thatname. Normal polling is used to determine the mindscapeof the public, where they stand on a certain issues orpolicies. Apush poll asks questions designed to push thepublics thinking toward a certain conclusion, by making itseem that there is momentum growing for a certain policyposition. For Example:

They could ask a question like this Should the

President boycott Fox News?, then follow up the nextday with: Todays poll showed that 30% of Americanssupport that position up from 29% last week.


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This is how it has been used, asking questions design tolead or push public opinion. It is actually a subtle formof manipulation.

(11) Use Investigative Probe Questions H5W Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How! These arethe basic questions that Journalists, Writers, Thinkers, andResearchers use when they are trying to get the bottom ofsome subject. For example, if you were a reporter and youarrived on the scene where something had happened, you

would use the H5W questions to help you to figure outwhat had transpired.What happened?Who did it?Whydid they do it?Where did they do it? Howdid they do it?

Andwhen did this event transpire? In the process ofgetting the answers to the H5W questions, yourunderstanding would begin to expand and other questionscould then occur to you. Dont dismiss this important setof questions they can be powerful servants pointing the

way towards Truth!

Please visit www.CreativeMindworkshop.com

The End

=RAP=


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Documents

Surviving the Information Storm