THE INTERNATIONAL PEN

The propaganda model was given by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in 1980s, explaining how money and power could effect news producing in US press. In the first chapter of Manufacturing Consent, Chomsky and Herman have illustrated how elites manipulate public thought through five filters. Each filter has been detailed explained with examples, from foreign elections to domestic media corporations. At the end of this chapter, a clear image of press censorship in US has been shown.

 

The five filters begin with the sieve of profit orientation. This filter refers to the interests of those huge media ownership, whose interests may also have a close connection with other transnational businesses and government. In this case, the independence of news could be easily influenced. Advertising is the second power processing the news. Since a large part of revenue of news companies is from advertisers, news agencies have to keep away from investigative documentaries, covers which may hurt advertisers’ interests, etc. Thirdly, news producers may offer biased information to readers as their sources relying on government and corporations crucially. The last two filters are flak and fear. Flak refers to criticisms of what media says, which could damage the image of media, or even suffer great losses. Fear is talking about political ideology, is changed from anti-communism.

 

The argument of the authors is well supported, with a comprehensive number of media studies. Chomsky and Herman delivered their idea that the media is dominated by money and power, even in a country of free world, like America. They redefine the role of media, as a tool to serve the interests of elites, not a watchdog or fourth estate. The positive function of this propaganda model should be admitted, it questioning the role of media. For ordinary people, it encourages readers to receive information wisely, for news producers, it offers a great opportunity to exam their duty. This model is a meaningful lesson for everyone living in this information age.

 

The criticism of the propaganda model has two main points. To start with, the authors did not offer any possible solutions to fix the problems. It did mention that a public funded media agency could work, but some people argue that it is too ideal. Also, the propaganda model may be a little out of date nowadays. As it was published in 1980s, the situation of media market and the way of information exchange has developed after decades. Take the last filter as an example, it was anti-communism at the end of the Reagan years, but it may be any prevailing ideology for now. Also, news reporters used to depend on government for news resource, but with the development of Internet, anyone could provide news and make news. However, Edward S. Herman asserted that the application of new communication technology and the Internet could not help with building a democratic media environment but exacerbate the problem of money and power influencing news producing.

 

 

Reference: Herman, Edward S and Chomsky Noam. (2002). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books.