Chord
How media manipulate you:
what you buy…
who you vote for…
and how you think.
Tony Schwartz
Mango Publishing
Copyright © 1973 by Anthony Schwartz
Additional content copyright © 2017 by Anton Schwartz
Foreword copyright © 2017 by John Carey
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, file transfer, or other electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations included in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses as permitted by copyright law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schwartz, Tony, author. | Carey, John, forewordist.
Title: The responsive chord : how media manipulate you: what you buy, who you
vote for, and how you think / Tony Schwartz ; [foreword by John Carey].
Description: Second edition. | Miami, FL : Mango Media Inc, 2017. | Originally published: New York : Anchor Press, 1973. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016052627 | ISBN 9781633536050 (pbk.) |
ISBN 9781633536081 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Communication—Social aspects. | Advertising—Psychological aspects. | BISAC: SOC052000 SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies | POL065000 POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / Media & Internet.
Classification: LCC HM258 .S32 2017 | DDC 302.2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052627
www.mango.bz www.tonyschwartz.org
Cover design by Cheryl Lynn F. Hermann and Islam Farid
Interior design by Kevin Callahan
First edition 1973, Anchor Press/Doubleday. Paperback edition 1974, Anchor Books.
Second edition 2017, published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
To my parents,
my wife, Reenah,
and my children, Kayla and Anton.
Contents
Foreword to the Second Edition
The Resonance Principle in Communication
How to Strike a Responsive Chord
The New Communications Environment
Hard Sell, Soft Sell, Deep Sell
Education in the Global Village
For additional content, including audio and video of examples discussed in this book, visit:
Foreword to the Second Edition
As a communication professor who teaches about new media and a researcher who has studied new media technologies for companies such as Google, Comcast NBCUniversal and the New York Times, why do I rely so heavily on a book written decades ago? It’s because The Responsive Chord describes with great clarity how media affect our lives and gives us practical guidelines that are just as relevant today as when the book was first published.
The Responsive Chord analyzes how and why our modern media environment works on us and in us. For example, why do some video bloggers who talk about things of little importance to anyone attract millions of followers? Tony Schwartz explains, “People are more likely to choose programming on the basis of some personal function it serves, rather than for specific content. In many instances, it does not matter what a program is about.” (p. 51) As Sam Roberts of the New York Times writes, “Mr. Schwartz presciently anticipated camcorders and also cellphones, iPods and other [modern] electronic devices.” Insights from the book also help us understand current media phenomena such as viral media, social media, virtual reality, and mobile media.
Tony Schwartz’s work in advertising, audio documentaries, political communication, public service media and soundscapes of everyday life is voluminous and legendary. He worked on five presidential campaigns, dozens of senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns, and thousands of television and radio commercials for hundreds of major corporations as well as countless social causes, including public health, crime prevention, educational funding, civil rights, environmental conservation,