No one in America is free and it is unlikely you or anyone else can ever be free, unless of course you listen to what people like Herman and Chomsky have to say. In the 1998 book Manufacturing Consent : The Political Economy of the Mass Media Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky discuss the power and role of propaganda in American society. Herman and Chomsky gutlíne how media, particularly news is a for-profit índustry whose primary concern to generate billions of dollars in profit for themselves.
These organizations comprise the ruling class which has the capability to manufacture, ar bring about, public consent for things ike major economic or political decisions such war, for instance Herman and Chomsky introduce a theory called the Propaganda Model which argues that before information reaches public, it passes through five filters which all interact and reinforce each other (Herman Chomsky, 2011). The filters help ensure that the information presented to the public is a/ dominant narrative of current events; in other words, it is the message of the economic elite. As stated by Chomsky ‘What comes out is a picture of the world that satisfies the needs, interests, and perceptions of the sellers and buyers of the product… People who don’t have that point of view.. [are] likely to be excluded’ (Noam Chomsky- Manufacturing Consent,’ 00:08:25 E00:08:45).
Understandably, the initial reaction against social control and manipulation would tend to lean towards the overthrowing of the elite ruling class, yet this easier said than done. argued by Williams (1977), “To overthrow The ruling class] is ordinarily to overthrow their conscious practice, and this is always very much harder than overthrowing their abstract and universalizing ideas” (p. 67) In his context, having an understanding of how society is controlled by the elite through the Five Filters can help in finding ways and means to effectively challenge the system; it is from this starting point that people can hope for a better society today and in the future.
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Understanding the Five Filters
The Propaganda Model has five essential components, in the form of news filters, which skew information in the way that it is presented to the American people. The first filter is Size, Ownership, and Profit Orientation of the Mass Media which pertains to the scale or the very large size of most media institutions (Herman & Chomsky, 2011, p. 3) Presently, about 90 percent of media in the United States is controlled by six multi-billion dollar corporations which includes Comcast, News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS (Grossman, 2019,p. 210)
Following the arguments of Herman and Chomsky, information that comes from these institutions is skewed towards one side for the purpose of promoting the of the ruling class or the powerful elite. In an interview with Chomsky, the author states: ‘The major decisions over what happens in society … is in the hands of a relatively concentrated network of major corporations, conglomerates, and investment firms; they are also the ones who staff the major executive positions in the government” (Noam Chomsky Manufacturing Consent 00:00:26-00:0046)
The second filter in the Propaganda Model pertains to Advertising License to Business Which focuses on advertising as a primary source of income for the large media outlets (Herman & Chomsky, 2011, p. 14). For instance, a company scandal may not be represented by news agency if that company is one of the sponsors for that news agency. If Coca-Cola was one the sponsors nat write a negative story on Coca-Cola simply for the fact that their income is supplied by their sponsor, Coca-Cola.
A third factor that leads to the skewing of information in American media is Sourcing Mass News (Herman & Chomsky, 2011, p. 18). The majority of media, because they are part of a large organization, tend to focus their efforts in certain locations in the United States. Far instance, there a lot of media outlets in New York and Washington, DC because these locations are where most political activity goes an. If there is a big story in Montana or Idaho, there is probably not going to be a lot of coverage on it as the media outlets have concentrated themselves in other specific environments.
The fourth filter that affects American media, according to Herman and Chomsky, is Flak and the Enforcers (Herman & Chomsky, 2011, p. 26). This pertains to negative information that portrayed in media outlets. Flak is characterized by concerted efforts to manage public information and opinion so that social perspectives and beliefs can be shaped. With this in mind, anyone who sings a different sang, so to speak, is silenced before he/she starts shaping a contrary public opinion. Such ‘silencing’ mechanisms are built into the system, as argued by Chomsky that, No institution is going to happily design a mechanism to self-destruct.. so thel work exclude or marginalize or eliminate dissenting voices or alternative perspectives because they are dysfunctional to the institution itself (‘Noam Chomsky- Manufacturing 00:09:03).
The fifth filter is Anti-communism as a Control Mechanism, and it is the contention of the authors that communism in America has been widely demonized and rejected because of the promotion of fear in the eyes of the American people Herman & Chomsky, 2011, p. 29). Nowadays, it can be observed that the fear of communism during the time of writing Manufacturing Consent has shifted towards Islamophobia due to the events of 9/11 and the effects that those events have had in the minds of the American people.
In understanding the Five Filters, people can begin to see that social constructions like race, Bender, class or sensuality, involves a practice in framing and positioning by the media The media is highly influential in how we interpret our own experiences and location, as well as how we interpret the experiences and social location of others. Through the work of Herman and Chomsky, media propaganda is exposed as the primary means by which corporate-owned media operates to construct understanding the world and to convince corporate interests are in line with the interests of the common people when, in fact, they are not.
While media can be a tool to reinforce our sense of superiority as a global power, it can also be a very powerful tool questioning and challenging the status quo, ar the sense of superiority of the few Powerful elite over the rest of the American populace. At the end of the day, understanding of how the ruling class manipulates society through the Five Filters can be a starting point in finding ways and means to challenge the system and overcome it so that people can truly be free at only today but also for the people of tomorrow.
