"Cloaked" Web Sites Disguise Hidden Propaganda

cloaked Web sitesJessie Daniels, an Associate Professor in the Urban Public Health program at Hunter College, New York, has identified a phenomenon she calls "cloaked Web sites," or sites published by individuals or groups who deliberately conceal their authorship to disguise a hidden political agenda. Cloaked Web sites, Daniels points out, can have very real consequences, especially in the area of health. The youth-oriented Web site TeenBreaks.com, for example, looks like a site about reproductive health, but it is really a disguise for pro-life propaganda, similar to the way brick-and-mortar "Women's Health Clinics" conceal staff counselors' intent to keep women from choosing abortions. Daniels expects the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United ruling to increase corporate use of sophisticated and subtle branding ads that try to influence "values," and direct how we think about health policy issues. One example is the Liberty Mutual insurance company's "Responsibility Project," an ad campaign and companion Web site that frame health issues like child obesity, fast food and smoking exclusively in terms of "personal responsibility" -- a sophisticated rhetorical PR strategy first employed by the tobacco industry that makes it difficult or impossible to reframe the discussion to include any talk of corporate responsibility.

Comments

I like how they say "Abortion is Serious and Permanent". Well, I think having a child is a little more serious and permanent. :-) Honestly though I don't have a problem with the site, better than having a "cloaked" web site encouraging pregnent teens to abort.

I looked at this site...I wish there had been something like that to help me with tough decisions when I was a teen. Instead I made horrible choices, one of them being an abortion. I am now 53, and believe me those 'choices' never leave you. This site offers hope. They also talked about adoption, and lifestyle, peer pressure, sexual abuse, and cutting! Real issues that these youngsters are dealing with. What is wrong with that? What would you want them to call themselves to attract teens then? How about :WWW.StupidThingsTeensDoToGetThemselvesInTrouble.com? I think you are wrong in your assessment and just maybe you should take aim at a website called "planned parenthood'. Does that not disguise what they are about ... abortions? I actually think your picking on this site shows your bias, and it is stupid. That is my opinion.

I am a 18 year old teen myself and I have visited the very bias and unrealistic Teenbreak.com site. I was scrolling through the very dicouraging, self-abusive commentary and felt outraged. This is a very unrealistic- fake i would say- representation of teenage life, pregnancy, and above all abortion. Teen sites should encourage pro-choice and all its angles. Not just a bashing view where all of the girls regret and want to kill themselves- what the hell is that?!?!? This site should be banned, deleted, or boycotted and its sad we do not have the technology to track crazy websites like this one and call out these authors. Websites like these are the reasons why teenagers regret, stress, and panic. Half the time, the stories of these girls are refuring to God and other unrealistic factors that contribute to their unhappiness. Someone please stop this madness!