2. Manufacturing Consent

Noam Chomsky

_________________ - has addressed many important issues throughout his extensive career, particular in the areas of power and politics. 

• He is a linguist, philosopher, political scientist, social activist, and a major influence in academia worldwide.

• His theories on linguistics, political ideology, and power have been hotly debated and challenged throughout his career, but his influence on many areas of study cannot be ignored.

Hegemony

________________ - refers to the political, economic, cultural, and/or military control and influence of one state over another state, or several others.

• This dominance can be established through cultural imperialism

Hegemonic ideology

Hegemony

_________________ - In Manufacturing Consent, Chomsky and Herman discuss the ways in which the ______________ of business elites and other private investors with financial interests in the opinions and economic actions of the general public assert their control and influence over the American public through the use and manipulation of the media.

Power

_____________- not easily defined— but in this course, refers less to forceful and physical coercion, and more so to the ability of one person or group to exert influence and control over others via social structures, cultural influence (see hegemony above), and the manipulation of social forms of communication and knowledge transfer

• Our social and political environment is designed in many ways to allow the control of the many by the few, and in some respects, this concept of power is so integral to our society’s functioning that we may not always be conscious of it, or be willing to question a system that seems to generally operate in this manner without chaos or loss of social organization.

Propaganda

________________ - is a type of communication used to promote a particular idea and influence the recipients of those messages of a particular idea or belief, commonly known as an agenda.

_______ can take many different forms, but typically it can be seen in advertisements.

• A good example of propaganda is the posters and messages used during WWII, both by the Allied Forces, and the German government

The Propaganda Model

_________________ - outlines how populations are manipulated by the media and large corporations through propaganda (through news, editorials, advertising campaigns, social media influence, etc.), with the end result being public support for their agenda.

Basically, suggests that the media filters and shapes reality to serve elite interests w/o the audience realizing it.

• Contains Five Filters.

• Ex: The advertising and public messaging by tobacco companies who denied the link between cigarettes and cancer.

  • By repeatedly linking doctors to cigarette recommendations, there became an implied connection between smoking and health which cast doubt on the connection between smoking and cancer.

  • The public consented to this information that had been manufactured by the tobacco companies and advertising firms.

Five Filters of the Propaganda Model (OAS-FF)

The Propaganda Model

_____________ - Include…

1. Ownership

2. Advertising

3. Sourcing

4. Flak

5. Fear ideologies (prev. anti-communism)

1) Ownership

The Propaganda Model → Five Filters (OAS-FF)

_______________ - The size and profit-seeking goals of a corporation/those in control creates bias. Since mainstream media outlets or either large corps/part of a conglomerate, the info presented to the public will be biased based on their interests.

• News items that endanger corporate financial interests of those who own the media will face the greatest bias and censorship

• To maximize profit, you need to sacrifice news objectivity— the news that survive must be fundamentally biased and have a conflict of interest.

• Example:

  • Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. While it’s still respected, critics argue this could influence coverage related to Amazon or Bezos’s political interests.

  • 🧠 Effect: These outlets may avoid publishing stories that would harm their parent companies or owners’ interests.

2) Advertising

The Propaganda Model → Five Filters (OAS-FF)

_______________ - People buying the media are the product being sold to the businesses that buy the advertising space.

__________ is used to cover cost of production— a need to attract advertisers. Lack of success in this area leads to demise of a newspaper/social media etc.

• The product are the readers who BUY the product

• News is “filler” to get privileged readers to see the ads and will use whatever form is most likely to attract them, and therefore buy the product.

• Example:

  • Facebook and Google shape content algorithms partly to keep users engaged (and advertisers happy), affecting what news gets visibility.

  • 🧠 Effect: Content that might scare away advertisers is toned down or ignored entirely.

3) Sourcing

The Propaganda Model → Five Filters (OAS-FF)

_______________ - Media has come reluctant to run articles that will harm corporate interests that provide them with resources they need— where they get news from

• Editors and journalists who offend powerful news sources (such as questioning their bias) can be threatened w/ the denial of what they NEED— fresh news.

Resources are concentrated where news stories are likely to happen— at news “terminals”, like the Whitehouse, the Pentagon, etc…

• Example:

  • Today, much reporting on Ukraine or Gaza often relies on official military or government statements, limiting critical perspectives or nuance.

  • Pierre Poilievre not allowing news to travel with him and know where he would be campaigning— not allowing for questions and therefore, no fresh news.

  • 🧠 Effect: This creates a built-in bias toward the perspective of the powerful.

4) Flak

The Propaganda Model → Five Filters (OAS-FF)

_______________ (+ the enforcers) - If media steps out of line, those in power can retaliate— to avoid this, media tends to “play it safe.” Concentrated efforts to manage public information, and avoid strong criticism.

• Example:

  • Sesame Street being defunded in America due to “woke” ideologies, therefore, many media tend to appeal to American conservatism.

  • 🧠 Effect: Media self-censor to avoid being targeted by PR campaigns, lawsuits, or boycotts.

5) Fear ideologies

The Propaganda Model → Five Filters (OAS-FF)

_______________ (used to be anti-communism) - A control mechanism— fears against a “common enemy” are used to justify and shape public opinion. Media exploits public fear and hatred of specific groups as potential “threats”.

• Examples:

  • Protests against the genocide in Gaza are brushed off as “anti-semetism” used to justify the deaths of innocent Palestinians.

  • Transwomen are singled out as the enemy despite statistically not being a very large group, and not being the most common group of sexual assaults of cis women (spoiler, it’s cishet men).

  • 🧠 Effect: These ideologies create an “us vs. them” mindset, discouraging dissent.

Agenda

News media → key concepts

______________ - refers to an ideological goal or belief system, and the intentions of promoting those ideals.

When we consider news ownership, or the power that sponsors buying commercial time have on the operations of a news agency, we can begin to understand how a particular agenda may shape the way in which stories are presented.

• This can also include self-censorship, if a reporter doesn’t even bother to pitch story ideas they know will be turned down in the first place.

• _______ can be seen in everything, from which stories are told, to how they are presented to the public

Spin

News media → key concepts

______________- How is a particular agenda presented? Through the careful crating and presentation of the narrative, or, in other words, how the story is told.

• Who is interviewed? What research is used? Are all sides of the story/issue/argument given equal time and consideration? What kind of language is used to present certain issues/locations/people?

  • Ex: Consider how the discussion on climate change evolves in the media. How are news stories on this data presented? Here are two potential headlines:

1) “Scientists deny climate change evidence”

and

2) “0.01 % of scientists deny climate change”.

• One small piece of statistical information can change the power of the headline greatly, and spin the story in very different ways.

• This can create very different narratives in how the general public understands and processes information in the media.

Trust + credibility

News media → key concepts

______________- being considered trustworthy and the standard for delivering knowledge and information in this context. This concept can also apply to individuals interviewed in a news story.

We place importance on individuals in society that we believe we can trust, and they hold a certain level of credibility, and power, which directly affects how we understand the story they are presenting. 

• We place a high level on the news/the “official story” presetned through a traditional news hour with a regular, well-known reporter/anchor developing the story— this is a standard news format, and so we place a high level of trust and importance on the stories they present.

• Anchors and reporters for well-reputed news channels and agencies have this.

  • Whom do we trust to tell us the truth? Who do we trust when we watch television? Do we trust the anchors on the CBC News Hour? Or do we trust citizens who tweet out photos from an ongoing siege in their community? Do we trust both? Can we?

• Who would we trust more to give us important information on a current issue in the community: a university professor, or a homeless person? What about someone with an accent that may be difficult to understand?

Overton window

News media → key concepts

______________AKA “window of discourse” - concept created by Joseph Overton that asserts that there is a range of acceptable positions/opinions that are deemed socially and politically acceptable by mainstream culture.

Through discourse and time, the window shifts to include some ideas and exclude others— It takes time and influence to shift this to include new ideas, and very often it is the outcome of years and multitudes that seems to enable one person to change the conversation

• Ex: In the 1980s and 1990s in North America, the idea of a universal basic income would have been seen as a radical socialist idea, not worthy of serious consideration.

  • In today’s political and social climate, the concept has become fairly normalized as an option to redistribute the wealth generated by technological advancements.

• Andrew Yang, the American Democratic candidate for to be the presidential nominee in the 2020 election is largely seen as the first to bring universal basic income to the forefront of American political discourse.

• But Yang leaned on the work and research of academics, activists and politicians to clearly explain the benefits of a UBI program.

  • The concept is now part of the mainstream discourse on wealth inequality. The window has shifted.

Evolution of the news

__________________ - Over a few decades, we’ve gone from only daily papers to a 24-hour televised news cycles to new social media platforms that give voice to citizen journalism.

• As news channels compete with Twitter journalists for ratings and primary access to stories, new levels of excitement and intensity are needed to draw in viewers.

  • With this, we see an increase in the sensationalism of stories and how they are presented, including experts whom are interviewed on various topics to support the spin in which a story is presented.

The news has evolved to many different voices competing in an incredibly fast-paced, entertainment-obsessed society, which means that the stories presented must also compete for attention, often times by any means necessary.

Agenda example

Agenda

_______________ - Ex: A very powerful cosmetics company, who spent millions of dollars airing advertisements for their products during the 6:00 pm news hour on a highly rated news broadcast, threatened to pull all of their advertisements when they heard that one of the top stories to be aired was promoting a women’s pro-choice health clinic in the area

• If the news station chose to go ahead with the story, they would risk losing millions of dollars in revenue.

• If they do not air the story, the political agenda of the cosmetics company has changed what are considered to be important stories for the public, even if the general public does not necessarily share in that same ideology.

  • This example could also extend to station/company owners, other sponsors, and so on. Even a section editor of a newspaper continuously turning down story ideas that promote differing ideals than their own, or the agenda of the agency they work for, is a form of agenda setting in the media.

Agenda-setting theory

Agenda

____________ - suggests that mass media (through their ability to identify and publicize issues) play a pivotal role in shaping the problems that attract attention from governments and international organizations, and direct public opinion towards specific issues.

• Media can shape public opinion by determining what issues are given the most attention, and has been widely studied and applied to various forms of media.

  • Since they establish the agenda, they may affect how important some things are seen to be.

• Two core assumptions

• Issue saliency

Issue saliency

Agenda → agenda-setting theory

______________ - The agenda-setting by media is driven by the media's bias on things such as politics, economy and culture, etc. Audiences consider an issue to be more significant the more media attention it receives.

• Ex: If readers don't have strong feelings about immigration, they will believe that it is a pressing problem at the time if there is consistent journalistic coverage of it over the period of a few months.

2 assumptions of agenda-setting theory

Agenda → agenda-setting theory

_________________ - What the theory is about. Includes…

1. Media that controls the reality

   • The media does not report the reality but instead filters and shapes it.

2. The media that gives importance or saliency to its topics as the more likely the media focuses on certain issues, the more likely the public perceive such issue as important and therefore demands action.