ABSTRACT
Case story 6 examines the tactics of conservative political strategists in the United States to support the change lesson:
Use your communications channels inventively to keep people focused on achieving your change vision.
Because we’re exposed to so much information we have to find ways of deciding whether to believe what we see and hear. We ask our friends what they think, we look to so-called experts for guidance, we look for video or photographic evidence. The more channels through which we hear a consistent message, the more likely we are to believe it. Case story 6 looks at how political strategist Lee Atwater and politician Newt Gingrich repositioned the Republican Party to make it more appealing to younger, well-educated voters in the 1980s and 1990s. It shows how they used technology and cunning to create what we now call the political echo chamber where beliefs and ideas are reinforced by feedback loops in communications channels.