Manufacturing Consent

The propaganda model is a theory of political economy put forward by Herman and Chomsky that shows a supposed systematic political bias of the mass media in terms of structural economic causes. The model shows the private media as bussiness selling a product to other businesses. The theory consists of five filters that show the type of news media. The function of the mass media system is to see how public opinion and choices can be made by authoritarian interest in a free society. TV and newspapers make events completely different from what they are. The national media goes after the elite opinion which play a role on decision-making in the private and public areas. The national media woul dnot be pleasing the audience if they did not show a somewhat real portrayal of the world.

One filter that Herman and Chomsky talk about is sourcing. The mass media needs continious flow of information. In an industrialized economy where people want information on a few world events, they say that this can only be doen by major businesses and government divisions that have the necessary information. Chomsky and Herman arguethat a "symbiotic relationship"comes between the media and parts of the government which is continual by economic necessity. Government and news-promoters help to make it easier for news organizations to buy their services by giving them the facilities in which they can gather the information, give journalists early copies of reports, schedule press conferences, write press releases in languages they can use, and carefully organize their photoe and press sessions. The media becomes afraid to write articles that will harm corporate interests.

There are many criticsms of the model. People feel that it is a recycling of the Marxist idea of "false consciousness" where the people have been so influenced that they can never look beyond the propaganda.