Manufacturing Consent
Book Review: This time around, I highlight the classic work by Herman & Chomsky, “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media”, new to the SSS Library collection. Being published in 1988 (with updates in 2002), one might imagine this work on use of the propaganda model of communication in western media to massage and manipulate the masses, to be outdated. On the contrary, while the medium of media has changed dramatically in the almost four decades since publication, the methods remain virtually the same. Herman and Chomsky assert that mass media companies… "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship , and without overt coercion", by means of the propaganda model of communication. ” Today’s volume and rush of internet content from independent creators comment...