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mass media. In their book
Manufacturing consent: the political economy
of the mass media
, they argued, with a focus on the United States, that
even ostensibly democratic countries have seen a misappropriation of
mass media channels for propagandistic ends (Herman and Chomsky,
1988). They famously posited five reasons why the contemporary news
media has, in their view, narrowed and homogenised its field of vision:
1. Public and not-for-profit news sources have given way more and
more to a few large, private, profit-seeking media corporations with
shareholders - this puts a premium on news that 'sells' and reduces
the likelihood of news reporting that compromises the corporate
interests and alliances of the owning companies.
2. Advertising is a key revenue source for many news providers - these
providers are thus more likely to cater to the political prejudices and
economic desires of their advertisers.
3. A relatively small number of news sources (e.g. national govern-
ments, large firms, scientific institutions) have become adept at pro-
viding 'newsworthy' plans, evidence, findings, etc. - these sources
thus become 'primary definers' of the news and reduce the costs
that news providers incur in 'making' the news.
4. Threats and recent cases of 'flak' have a chilling effect on news
providers - organisations unhappy with news content can take (and
have taken) punitive action against news providers (e.g. lawsuits).
This kind of organised opposition to 'unwelcome and unwanted
news' can make news providers avoid risk in their choices about what
is newsworthy and how it's presented to readers/listeners/viewers.
5. Putative 'enemies' and 'threats' help define the terms of news dis-
course - partly, but not entirely because of points (1)-(4), news
providers will rarely question taken-for-granted beliefs that are used
strategically by economic and political elites, e.g. terrorists are 'irra-
tional' and 'inhumane', or the solution to a recession is more of the
economic growth that preceded the recession.
Herman and Chomsky's book was, intellectually speaking, located
somewhere between the pessimism of the Frankfurt School and the
determinism of the 'hypodermic theory' of media effects. It showed
propaganda to be the inevitable result of a creeping process of self-
censorship by wary, co-opted or compromised news providers. Need-
less to say,
Manufacturing consent
came in for a lot of criticism, even
from erstwhile sympathisers. Quite aside from overstating the power
of the news media to create and sustain social consensus, the topic
was said to underplay the enduring liberalism of many news media
organisations. More stringent criticism came from those who didn't
