From Dedicato Samuel: “What exactly is guerrilla decontextualization, why does it matter, and how did you come up with the concept?”
Guerrilla decontextualization is the practice of taking fragments of media or informational facts out of their original context and using them to misrepresent a person, an organization, or even a movement. The resulting impact for all intended purposes, or even non-intended purposes, distorts public and private perception in such a way that it basically destroys the original understanding of the subject and promotes a lesser understanding meant to diminish any power of influence exercised by the original. This can happen on a conscious or unconscious level and it can cause a lot of chaos, including the destruction of human life.
I first began developing the concept as the U.S. presidential race picked up steam in 2008. I noticed the way some media reps and individuals just beginning to discover the power of social media were taking sound bytes out of recordings, or clips out of videos, and presenting them to the American public as though these excerpts told the whole story about what had been going on. I saw this turning into a very disturbing trend with negative consequences that people practicing guerrilla decontextualization did not seem to be aware of. So, to date, I’ve written about a dozen articles that discuss the subject while also continuing to develop the concept and identify its implications as a whole for eventual publication in book form. A number of other writers and translators in the international community have started doing the same.
Guerrilla decontextualization is the practice of taking fragments of media or informational facts out of their original context and using them to misrepresent a person, an organization, or even a movement. The resulting impact for all intended purposes, or even non-intended purposes, distorts public and private perception in such a way that it basically destroys the original understanding of the subject and promotes a lesser understanding meant to diminish any power of influence exercised by the original. This can happen on a conscious or unconscious level and it can cause a lot of chaos, including the destruction of human life.
I first began developing the concept as the U.S. presidential race picked up steam in 2008. I noticed the way some media reps and individuals just beginning to discover the power of social media were taking sound bytes out of recordings, or clips out of videos, and presenting them to the American public as though these excerpts told the whole story about what had been going on. I saw this turning into a very disturbing trend with negative consequences that people practicing guerrilla decontextualization did not seem to be aware of. So, to date, I’ve written about a dozen articles that discuss the subject while also continuing to develop the concept and identify its implications as a whole for eventual publication in book form. A number of other writers and translators in the international community have started doing the same.