wikipedia/Chomsky
Another focus of Chomsky's political work has been an analysis of mainstream mass media (especially in the United States), which he
accuses of maintaining constraints on dialogue so as to promote the interests of corporations and the government.
Edward S. Herman and Chomsky's book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media explores this topic in depth, presenting their "propaganda model" of the news media with several detailed case studies in support of it. According to this propaganda model, more democratic societies like the U.S. use subtle, non-violent
means of control, unlike totalitarian systems, where physical force can readily be used to coerce the general population. In an often-quoted remark, Chomsky states that "propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state." (Media Control)
The model attempts to explain such a systemic bias in terms of structural economic causes rather than a conspiracy of people. It argues the bias derives from five "filters" that all published news must
pass through which combine to systematically distort news coverage.- The first filter, ownership, notes that most major media outlets are owned by large corporations.
- The second, funding, notes that the outlets derive the majority
of their funding from advertising, not readers. Thus, since they are profit-oriented businesses selling a product — readers and audiences — to other businesses (advertisers), the model would expect them to publish news which would reflect the desires and values of those businesses.
- In addition, the news media are dependent on government institutions and major businesses
with strong biases as sources (the third filter) for much of their information.
- Flak, the fourth filter, refers to the various pressure groups which go after the media for supposed bias and so on when they go out of line.
- Norms, the fifth filter, refer to the common conceptions shared by those in the profession of journalism. (Note: in the original text, published in 1988, the fifth filter was "anticommunism". However, with the fall of the Soviet Union, it has been broadened to allow for shifts in public opinion.)
The model therefore attempts to describe how the media form a decentralized and non-conspiratorial but nonetheless very powerful propaganda system, that is able to mobilize an "élite" consensus, frame public debate within "élite" perspectives and at the same time give the
appearance of democratic consent.
Chomsky and Herman test their model empirically by picking "paired examples" — pairs of events that were objectively similar except in relation to certain interests. For example, they attempt to show that in cases where an "official enemy" does something (like murder a religious official), the press investigates thoroughly and devotes a great amount of coverage to the matter, but when the domestic government or an
ally does the same thing (or worse), the press downplays the story. They also test their model against the case that is often held up as the best example of a free and aggressively independent press, the media coverage of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. Even in this case, they argue that the press was behaving subserviently to "élite" interests.
Unless otherwise noted all content has been released under the GNU Free Documentation License. The above is sourced from Wikipedia / Wiktionary - a multilingual Web-based free-content encyclopedia / dictionary.
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What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream
Noam Chomsky 1997
The elite media set a framework within which others operate. For some years I used to monitor the Associated Press. It grinds out (more ....)
Manufacturing Consent:
Noam Chomsky and the Media
A documentary film that explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, world - renowned linguist, intellectual, and political activist. (more ....) |
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