Manufacturing Consent

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
(A Left Wing Perspective of Media)

After reading this article I felt it was important to focus on how modern media is run through propaganda. The most important factor effecting media is money and profits. Early in the article they summarize this fact well.
“A propaganda model focuses on inequality in wealth and power and its effects on mass-media.”
“Money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print, marginalize dissent, and allow the government and dominant private interest groups to get their messages across to the public.”
What Herman and Chomsky basically are saying is that media and news is dominated by the almighty dollar, profits, advertising and corporate interests will dominate and sway what is actually portrayed in the news.
The news is dictated by economics, a news team cannot be everywhere obviously so a paper or television news will send their reporters and researchers to where specific events are taking place (such as places wars are taking place, the white house, courthouses) or where they are “tipped” off to be.
Many corporations or private interest groups through their donations and press releases to news groups can end up gaining “positive” press and more press coverage therefore dictating the news or media, this in turn could be considered propaganda in my opinion since there is never an unbiased view in media although many papers and news broadcasts claim to be unbiased.
All media according to Herman and Chomsky are susceptible to becoming tools of propaganda either through the government, or financial interests, that’s the bottom line.
“A propaganda approach to media coverage suggests systematic and highly political dichotomization in news coverage based on serviceability to important domestic power interests.”