Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media - Softcover

Herman, Edward S

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847920705 ISBN 13: 9781847920706

Publisher: Bodley Head, 2008

Synopsis

We normally think that the press is cantankerous, obstinate and ubiquitous in its search for truth. In Manufacturing Consent Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky show how an underlying elite consensus largely structures all facets of the news. Far from challenging established power, the media work hard to discover and mirror its assumptions. The authors skilfully dissect the way in which the marketplace and the economics of publishing significantly shape the news. They reveal how issues are framed and topics chosen, and they contrast the double standards underlying accounts of free elections, a free press and governmental repression. The authors conclude that the modern mass media can best be understood in terms of a ‘propaganda model’. News and entertainment companies dedicate themselves to profit within the established system.
Their interests require that they support the governing assumptions of state and private power.

The propaganda model provokes outrage from journalists, editors and broadcasters, but the performance of the major media has repeatedly confirmed the predictive power of Herman and Chomsky's work. Twenty years after first publication, Manufacturing Consent remains essential reading for those who wish to understand the times in which they live.

About this title

Review

An absolutely brilliant analysis of the ways in which individuals and organizations of the media are influenced to shape the social agendas of knowledge and, therefore, belief. Contrary to the popular conception of members of the press as hard-bitten realists doggedly pursuing unpopular truths, Herman and Chomsky prove conclusively that the free-market economics model of media leads inevitably to normative and narrow reporting. Whether or not you've seen the eye-opening movie, buy this book, and you will be a far more knowledgeable person and much less prone to having your beliefs manipulated as easily as the press.

From the Publisher

"[A] compelling indictment of the news media's role in covering up errors and deceptions in American foreign policy of the past quarter century."--Walter LaFeber, The New York Times Book Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Bodley Head
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1847920705
• ISBN 13: 9781847920706
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464