The propaganda model was put forward by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman in “Manufacturing Consent” (1988) to account for what gets reported as news in America.
Five filters: For something to get reported as news it has to pass through five filters:
- Corporate ownership: In 1988 most of the news came from just 24 companies, like News Corp, Hearst, Knight-Ridder and Turner Broadcasting (CNN). All these are owned and run for profit by the rich.
- Advertising: The news is mostly paid for by advertisers. Advertisers are not interested in reaching the poor but people with money to spend, like on a new car. So issues important to the poor and working class get little attention or are covered from a middle-class point of view. Also, most advertisers are big businesses and many have Jews in important positions. So you can forget about any honest look at things like Israel, nuclear power, the environment, health care or what American companies do in poor countries.
- Sourcing: Reporters are under a deadline to produce a certain amount of content in a certain amount of time. Government and big business know that and spoon feed it ready-made content. They shut out those who seriously question them. So the press tends to be soft on steady sources of news like the president, the military, big business and the police.
- Flak: Saying the wrong thing can lead to boycotts, lawsuits, a call from the president or cries of “liberal bias” from right-wing watchdog groups. So the press plays it safe.
- Anti-communism: This was used not only to frame events abroad, but to shame the press if it became “too soft” on communism or left-wing causes.
Add to this the two kinds of victims:
- Worthy victims: those who are killed, imprisoned or threatened by an enemy state. They are covered at length. Examples: trade unions in communist Poland, Cambodians killed by Pol Pot.
- Unworthy victims: those who are killed, imprisoned or threatened by the American government or a friendly state. They are hardly covered at all. Examples: trade unions in Turkey, Cambodians killed by American bombing.
The two kinds of sources:
- Unquestioned sources: the governments of America and friendly states; those who have fled from or speak out against enemy states.
- Questionable sources: the governments of enemy states; those who have fled from or speak out against America or friendly states.
Chomsky and Herman say that the propaganda model still applies today, despite the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the Internet:
- The lack of a strong left in the West means the press supports capitalism even more strongly.
- The Internet: While it has been a great help to protesters, in general only those with serious money can reach millions.
And meanwhile the media has fallen into yet fewer hands. By 2002, when they wrote a new introduction to their book, most of the mass media was owned by just nine companies:
- Viacom
- News Corp
- General Electric
- AOL-Time Warner
- Bertelsmann
- Disney
- Vivendi Universal
- AT&T-Liberty Media
- Sony
See also:
many have Jews in important positions.
Um, what?
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I think it is even fewer now, abagond.
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@sagredo i think abagond is just paraphrasing chomsky and hermans words and ideas.
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Interesting coincidence. I’m re-reading “MC” right now. It’s in my “bus ride reading” pocket of my work bag. I read it decades ago. It was one of the most influential works in my life at that point. Though I find it still powerful, it is interesting to see how some of the points are beginning to erode a bit in this internet age.
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I’m Laura Kinney, I just changed my handle.
I think Chomsky is one of the few Jews who is critical of Israel, so that doesn’t surprise me. He’s critical of what he sees as Isreal’s imperialism/alliance with capitalism.
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Sorry jewish public figures
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Uhhh… I think Jews being an over-represented group amongst the media doesn’t mean they are any more likely to misrepresent key issues. Keep in mind, in America, most Jews are liberal — even religiously Orthodox Jews.
Whenever someone brings up “Jews” while talking about Hollywood, the media, or big businesses, I tend to get really skeptical, because that’s when subtle pieces of anti-Semitism starts to leak out.
So when you say, “Also, most advertisers are big businesses and many have Jews in important positions. So you can forget about any honest look at things like Israel, nuclear power, the environment, health care or what American companies do in poor countries.”
That is you, buying into the same zeitgeist stereotype that created the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The only thing I can say that Jews are likely to misrepresent, are the war-crimes that Israel commits in its conflict with the Palestinians. However, even then we have (in)famous Jews, like Chomsky, who are extremely critical of Israel. So again, this can only be speculation based on how you perceive American Jewry.
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The thing about Jews is not in the book itself – and now I can see why since many would miss the whole point if it were – but it is something Chomsky himself has said on a separate occasion and it does fit right in with the model. Perhaps Herman himself does not agree.
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@ Zek
Thats why I said “what he sees as” . With Chomsky he tends to go more towards that radical position, Not saying that I disagree with it but in regards to capitalism, he seems to think anything and everything involved with it is imperialist/aggression=bad. I’m generalizing paraphrasing here.
Jews are overrepresented in the media but that doesn’t mean they control how it operates. At least not in America.Control of the media in America is in the hands of the powerful, mainly the Anglo Protestant Whites. Maybe in Isreal.
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Excellent post, Abagond.
Although the analysis is not a surprise, it’s always a frightening outlook reading it in summarised form.
I suppose apart from making more people aware of the practices of the media giants, the consumers have the power to send a message out by not reading, watching or buying what they’re spoon-fed by the pigopolists. Hit them where it hurts them most. Money.
However there is a dilemma in boycotts. Even the most critical consumers who turn to independent media have to inform themselves what the giants publish if they want to stay credible in their rejection. How would you know someone is wrong if you never read or watch their publications? I would guess that quite a significant chunk of the mainstream media’s audience are lurkers but don’t assimilate most of it indiscriminately.
Most people I know (myself included) consume material that we judge inadequate or utter rubbish right after…
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However there is a dilemma in boycotts. Even the most critical consumers who turn to independent media have to inform themselves what the giants publish if they want to stay credible in their rejection. How would you know someone is wrong if you never read or watch their publications? I would guess that quite a significant chunk of the mainstream media’s audience are lurkers but don’t assimilate most of it indiscriminately.
Most of these newspapers and magazines can be read online. You can keep abreast of what they are promulgating without paying for it. I don’t watch television news. I look for news from other countries( it is surprising how many offer their papers in English). Comparing various modes of presenting news, is interesting to say the least. It is disturbing as to what they choose to report on though.
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I am familiar with Chomsky and Herman’s work. “The Politics of Genocide” sure makes an interesting read.
These are the sort of things I think about every day, and they are part of my life (or anybody else’s who lives in my part of the world) so it’s interesting to see these issues are not often discussed in some other part of the world.
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“I think it is even fewer now, abagond.”
Sam,
I think so too.
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What did George Orwell say?
“The people will believe what the media tells them they believe.”
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Dr Goebbels of German nazi party: “Tell a lie big enough and the people will be happy to believe in it.”
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Yes and no. You indirectly pay by paying attention to them. Even if the content is free, every click counts for them and their advertisers. I don’t know how many visitors they get a day but I would suppose that losing a large chunk might hurt them as a whole.
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Abagond:
I’m gonna state some facts that black people in this country don’t wanna deal with, as it relates to “the powers that be.”
1. Capitalism is not destroying the world, Crony capitalism is the problem. The Walt Disney Company, Time-Warner, Viacom, Apple, and Google are examples of corporations in bed with the democrat party, which is fascism.
2. With the exception of News Corporation, conservative blogs, and conservative talk-radio, 90-95% of media in the US is progressive/liberal.
3. White colleges and universities are dominated by white liberals who support the likes of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and many other dictators in the world.
4. Hollywood is controlled by white liberals who happen to be jewish in ancestry.
5. Politics is not a popularity contest, It’s Bizness! Black people don’t have to give a damn’ about either party, but, which party gives us the best opportunity to succeed? I’m a conservative/republican who doesn’t give a f**k if black people hate me. Yes, republicans who fought a civil-war with the south owned slaves, but republicans got it done. Democrats are the party of slavery, but black people are quick to kiss their ass as if they really give a damn’ about us anyway. I’m a working-class brotha who lives in the hood, so, don’t believe the stereotype. I’m not the brotha black people should be afraid of, all of those blackmen are democrats!
6. The NFL and NBA are “Glorified Plantations.” Athletically gifted blackmen making billions of dollars for white people, with no real benefit to black people as a whole. White colleges, agents, lawyers, groupies, and cheerleaders reap the benefits of what the blackwoman created.
Zen Aquarius
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Reblogged this on Project ENGAGE.
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