''Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media'' is a 1988 book by
Edward S. Herman
Edward Samuel Herman (April 7, 1925 – November 11, 2017) was an American economist, media scholar and social critic. Herman is known for his media criticism, in particular the propaganda model hypothesis he developed with Noam Chomsky, a fr ...
and
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
. It argues that the
mass communication media of the U.S. "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and
self-censorship
Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse. This is done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences (actual or perceived) of others and without overt pressure from any specific party or insti ...
, and without overt coercion", by means of the
propaganda model of communication. The title refers to
consent of the governed
In political philosophy, the phrase consent of the governed refers to the idea that a government's legitimacy and moral right to use state power is justified and lawful only when consented to by the people or society over which that political pow ...
, and derives from the phrase "the manufacture of consent" used by
Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War, coining the te ...
in ''
Public Opinion
Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them.
Etymology
The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...
'' (1922). The book was honored with the
Orwell Award
The NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language (the Orwell Award for short), is an award given since 1975 by the Public Language Award Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English ...
.
A 2002 revision takes account of developments such as the
fall of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
. A 2009 interview with the authors notes the effects of the internet on the propaganda model.
Background
Origins
Chomsky credits the origin of the book to the impetus of
Alex Carey, the Australian
social psychologist
Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the re ...
, to whom Herman and Chomsky dedicated the book. The book was greatly inspired by Herman's earlier financial research. Since Herman's contribution to the book was so important, Chomsky insisted on putting Herman's name in front of his name, contrary to the pair’s habit of alphabetic listing. Herman and Chomsky were close friends for fifty years.
Authorship
Herman was a professor of finance at
Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...
at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
,
and Chomsky is a linguist and activist scholar, who wrote many other books, such as ''
Towards a New Cold War
''Towards a New Cold War: Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got There'' is a 1982 book by Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, h ...
''.
Before ''Manufacturing Consent'' was published in 1988, the two authors had collaborated on the same subject before. Their book ''
Counter-Revolutionary Violence: Bloodbaths in Fact & Propaganda'', a book about American foreign policy and the media, was published in 1973. The publisher for the book, a subsidiary of
Warner Communications Incorporated, was deliberately put out of business after printing 20,000 copies of the book, most of which were destroyed, so the book was not widely known.
According to Chomsky, "most of the book
'Manufacturing Consent'' was the work of
Edward S. Herman
Edward Samuel Herman (April 7, 1925 – November 11, 2017) was an American economist, media scholar and social critic. Herman is known for his media criticism, in particular the propaganda model hypothesis he developed with Noam Chomsky, a fr ...
.
[ Wintonick, Peter, and ]Mark Achbar
Mark Achbar (born in Ottawa in 1955)
is a Canadian filmmaker, best known for '' The Corporation'' (2003) and '' Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media'' (1994).
Biography
Achbar is a graduate of Syracuse University's Fine Arts Fil ...
. 1995. '' Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media''. Montreal: Black Rose Books. Herman describes a rough division of labor in preparing the book whereby he was responsible for the preface and chapters 1–4 while Chomsky was responsible for chapters 5–7.
According to Herman, the propaganda model described in the book was originally his idea, tracing it back to his 1981 book ''Corporate Control, Corporate Power''.
The main elements of the propaganda model (though not so-called at the time) were discussed briefly in volume 1 chapter 2 of Herman and Chomsky's 1979 book ''
The Political Economy of Human Rights
''The Political Economy of Human Rights'' is a 1979 two-volume work by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman. The authors offer a critique of United States foreign policy, particularly in Indochina.
Summary
Chomsky and Herman discuss United States ...
'', where they argued, "Especially where the issues involve substantial U.S. economic and political interests and relationships with friendly or hostile states, the mass media usually function much in the manner of state propaganda agencies."
Propaganda model of communication
The book introduced the propaganda model of communication, which is still developing today.
The propaganda model for the manufacture of public consent describes five editorially distorting filters, which are said to impact reporting of news in mass communications media. These five filters of editorial bias are:
# ''Size, ownership, and profit orientation'': The dominant mass-media outlets are large profit-based operations, and therefore they must cater to the financial interests of the owners such as corporations and controlling investors. The size of a media company is a consequence of the investment capital required for the mass-communications technology required to reach a mass audience of viewers, listeners, and readers.
# ''The advertising license to do business'': Since the majority of the revenue of major media outlets derives from
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
(not from sales or subscriptions), advertisers have acquired a "de facto licensing authority." Media outlets are not commercially viable without the support of advertisers. News media must therefore cater to the political prejudices and economic desires of their advertisers. This has weakened the
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
press, for example, and also helps explain the attrition in the number of newspapers.
# ''Sourcing mass media news'': Herman and Chomsky argue that "the large bureaucracies of the powerful ''subsidize'' the mass media, and gain special access
o the news by their contribution to reducing the media's costs of acquiring
..and producing, news. The large entities that provide this subsidy become 'routine' news sources and have privileged access to the gates. Non-routine sources must struggle for access, and may be ignored by the arbitrary decision of the gatekeepers." Editorial distortion is aggravated by the news media's dependence upon private and
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
al news sources. If a given newspaper, television station, magazine, etc., incurs disfavor from the sources, it is subtly excluded from access to information. Consequently, it loses readers or viewers, and ultimately, advertisers. To minimize such financial danger, news media businesses editorially distort their reporting to favor government and corporate policies in order to stay in business.
[Herman and Chomsky, ''Manufacturing Consent''.]
# ''Flak and the enforcers'': "Flak" refers to negative responses to a media statement or program (e.g. letters, complaints, lawsuits, or legislative actions). Flak can be expensive to the media, either due to loss of advertising revenue, or due to the costs of legal defense or defense of the media outlet's public image. Flak can be organized by powerful, private influence groups (e.g.
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
s). The prospect of eliciting flak can be a deterrent to the reporting of certain kinds of facts or opinions.
[
# ''Anti-communism/war on terror'': Anti-communism was included as a filter in the original 1988 edition of the book, but Chomsky argues that since the end of the ]Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
(1945–91) anticommunism
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
was replaced by the "war on terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...
" as the major social control mechanism.
The Propaganda model of communication and its influence over major media organizations
The propaganda model describes the major pillars of society (the public domain, business firms, media organizations, governments etc.) as first and foremost, profit-seekers. To fully consider the effects of the propaganda model, a tiered diagram can be drawn. Due to the impressionable and exploitative nature of major media organizations including broadcast media, print media, and 21st century social media, media organizations are placed at the bottom. As the model scales upward, it pans to the larger organizations who are financially capable of controlling advertising licenses, lawsuits, or selling environments. The first level displays the public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
in which prominent ideologies within the masses can influence the intentions of mass media. The second level pertaining to the business firms accounts for the media’s source of information as business firms are wealthy enough to supply information to media organizations while maintaining control over where advertisers can sell their advertisements and stories. The final layer, the governments of the major global powers, are the wealthiest subgroup of the pillars of society. Having the most financial wealth and organizational power, media organizations are most dependent on government structures for financial stability and political direction.
Influence and impact
* In 2006, Fatih Tas, owner of the Aram editorial house, along with two editors and the translator of the revised, 2001 edition of ''Manufacturing Consent'' were prosecuted by the Turkish government for "stirring hatred among the public" (per Article 216 of the Turkish Penal Code) and for "denigrating the national identity" of Turkey (per Article 301). The reason cited was that the introduction to this edition addresses the 1990s' Turkish news media reportage of governmental suppression of the Kurdish populace. The defendants were ultimately acquitted.
* In 2007, from May 15–17 at the ''20 Years of Propaganda?: Critical Discussions & Evidence on the Ongoing Relevance of the Herman & Chomsky Propaganda Model'' conference held at the University of Windsor
, mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge
, established =
, academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada
, former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963)
, type = Public universit ...
, Herman and Chomsky summarized developments to the propaganda model on the occasion of the vicennial anniversary of first publication of ''Manufacturing Consent''.
* A 2011 Chinese translation was published by Peking University
Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education.
Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...
.
Documentary adaptation
The 1992 documentary film '' Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media'' directed by Mark Achbar
Mark Achbar (born in Ottawa in 1955)
is a Canadian filmmaker, best known for '' The Corporation'' (2003) and '' Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media'' (1994).
Biography
Achbar is a graduate of Syracuse University's Fine Arts Fil ...
and Peter Wintonick
Peter Kenneth Wintonick (June 10, 1953 – November 18, 2013) was a Canadian independent documentary filmmaker based in Montreal. A winner of the 2006 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, former Thinker in Residence for the Premier ...
first opened at the Film Forum
Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. It began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a $19,000 annual budget. Ka ...
. This three-hour adaptation considers the propaganda model of communication and the politics of the mass-communications business, with emphasis on Chomsky's ideas and career.
See also
*'' Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media''
* Media imperialism Media imperialism (sometimes referred to as cultural imperialism) is an area in the international political economy of communications research tradition that focuses on how "all Empires, in territorial or nonterritorial forms, rely upon communicati ...
* Media bias
Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of many events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening of J ...
* Nicaraguan general election, 1984 (US media coverage of these is the subject of Chapter 3)
* Politico-media complex
The politico-media complex (PMC, also referred to as the political-media complex) is a name given to the network of relationships between a state's political and ruling classes and its media industry. It may also encompass other interest groups, ...
* ''The Engineering of Consent
"The Engineering of Consent" is an essay by Edward Bernays first published in 1947, and a #Book, book he published in 1955.
Overview
In his own words, Bernays describes engineering consent as "use of an engineering approach—that is, action ...
''
* ''Merchants of Doubt
''Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming'' is a 2010 non-fiction book by American historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. It identifies parallels betw ...
''
* ''Spin (1995 film)
''"Spin"'' is a 1995 documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nicho ...
''
* ''The Panama Deception
''The Panama Deception'' is a 1992 American documentary film, critical of the 1989 United States invasion of Panama.
The film was directed by Barbara Trent, written and edited by David Kasper, and narrated by actress Elizabeth Montgomery. It was a ...
''
* Preference falsification Preference falsification is the act of misrepresenting a preference under perceived public pressures. It involves the selection of a publicly expressed preference that differs from the underlying privately held preference (or simply, a public prefer ...
* Filter bubble
A filter bubble or ideological frame is a state of intellectual isolationTechnopediaDefinition – What does Filter Bubble mean?, Retrieved October 10, 2017, "....A filter bubble is the intellectual isolation, that can occur when websites make us ...
References
External links
* Text o
archive.org
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy Of The Mass Media
1988 non-fiction books
Books about media bias
Books about propaganda
Books about public opinion
Books about politics of the United States
Non-fiction books adapted into films
Books by Edward S. Herman
Books by Noam Chomsky
English-language books
Collaborative non-fiction books
Pantheon Books books
Works about the information economy