According to Chomsky 'propaganda is to democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state,' and the mass media is the primary vehicle for delivering propaganda in the United States. The new edition of Media Control also includes 'The Journalist from Mars,' Chomsky's 2002 talk on the media coverage of America's 'new war on terrorism.'Ĭhomsky begins by asserting two models of democracy-one in which the public actively participates, and one in which the public is manipulated and controlled. A common enemy, a bogeyman to fear, helps corral public opinion.Noam Chomsky's backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control has been updated and expanded into a two-section book, and redesigned following the acclaimed format of his Open Media anti-war bestseller, 9-11. To manufacture consent, you need an enemy - a target.

When the story is inconvenient for the powers that be, you’ll see the flak machine in action discrediting sources, trashing stories and diverting the conversation. When the media – journalists, whistleblowers, sources – stray away from the consensus, they get ‘flak’. If you want to challenge power, you’ll be pushed to the margins. So, those in power and those who report on them are in bed with each other. They make themselves crucial to the process of journalism. They feed media scoops, official accounts, interviews with the ‘experts’. They know how to influence the news narrative.

Governments, corporations, big institutions know how to play the media game. Journalism cannot be a check on power because the very system encourages complicity. The establishment manages the media through the third filter. They are also selling advertisers a product - YOU.” And so it isn’t so much that the media are selling you a product - their output. And what are the advertisers paying for? Audiences. Media costs a lot more than consumers will ever pay. The second filter exposes the real role of advertising. Naturally, critical journalism must take second place to the needs and interests of the corporation.

And so it’s in their interests to push for whatever guarantees that profit.

Often, they are part of even bigger conglomerates. Short video on Manufacturing Consent, seminal work on mainstream journalism and its role in the mechanics of power.Īccording to Chomsky, media operate through five filters: ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak and the common enemy.

Media Control by Noam Chomsky