Weapons of Mass Distraction: Magicianship, Misdirection, and the Dark Side of Legitimation

Most discussions of legitimation focus on factors that are expected to contribute to it, such as tradition, expertise, or prosperity. Less attention has been paid to "the dark side" of legitimation, which depends heavily on evading attention. A potentially informative approach is to learn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociological forum (Randolph, N.J.) N.J.), 2007-06, Vol.22 (2), p.146-173
Main Authors: Freudenburg, William R., Alario, Margarita
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
"friend vs. foe" legitimation
Attention
Capitalism
Discourse
diversionary reframing
Frankfurt school
issue framing
legitimacy
Legitimation
Magicians
Mass media
misdirection
Political debate
Political legitimacy
Political protests
Political sociology
Political systems
Politicians
Power
power and discourse
Social scientists
Sociological analysis
Sociology
Sociology of communication and mass media. Sociolinguistics
Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture
Technology
Tradition
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Summary:Most discussions of legitimation focus on factors that are expected to contribute to it, such as tradition, expertise, or prosperity. Less attention has been paid to "the dark side" of legitimation, which depends heavily on evading attention. A potentially informative approach is to learn from professionals with special expertise in evading attention while making things "disappear"--magicians. Rather than seeking overt control over the audience, they perform in plain view, largely by using well-timed distractions, or "misdirection." Preliminary evidence suggests that similar techniques may be widely used in political contexts, with some of the most effective forms of misdirection involving diversionary reframing--diverting attention away from any questions about existing distributions of privilege, not by brute force, but by changing the subject, especially by raising questions about the legitimacy of critics. These and related techniques clearly deserve to be the focus of additional research.
ISSN:0884-8971
1573-7861
DOI:10.1111/j.1573-7861.2007.00011.x