From Wurlitzer to Algorithm - The Evolution of Media as a Tool for Population Management
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: This paper traces the evolution of propaganda techniques from the CIA’s covert Operation Wurlitzer during the Cold War to the algorithmic manipulation of public emotion and opinion in the digital era. Initially designed to influence foreign sentiment, Wurlitzer’s methods—media infiltration, fear-based narrative control, and emotional framing—have become domesticated, normalized, and scaled by modern media institutions and social platforms. Drawing from historical analysis, media studies, neuroscience, and digital sociology, the paper argues that the architecture of perception has shifted from informing populations to conditioning them. Through coordinated talking points, algorithmic amplification, and crisis framing, media now operates as a tool of psychological regulation rather than critical inquiry. The study presents Wurlitzer not as a closed historical chapter, but as an ongoing system of emotional choreography and population management.
Author: MacLean, Ryan
Language: English
Topic: Media Influence and Politics
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6912157189
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