Manufacturing Consent – Noam Chomsky and the Media

When I was studying for my undergraduate degree I read one of Noam Chomsky’s books. I was impressed by the well thought out arguments and I’ve always been interested in new media philosophy.

If you’ve never heard of Noam Chomsky hes widely known as an American linguist, philosopher and political activist. Born in 1928 as a Jewish person growing up in Philadelphia he experienced first hand social and political upheaval of the 30’s.

From a young age he identified with anarchist politics writing an essay on the spread of fascism while being only 10 years old. Eventually he became one of the most vocal opponents of the Vietnam war.

The 1988 book Manufacturing Consent: The political economy of the mass media was written by Chomsky and Edward S Herman. This book was later adapted into a film in 1992 by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick.

The film largely explores the ‘propaganda model’ there are five points to the propaganda model and they mainly revolve around control. Control by public bodies, private corporations and other news sources.

Manufacturing Consent points towards a very subtile type of propaganda. One where we are persuaded to think in a particular manner influenced by the media. Its a very delicate kind of persuasion, in a way its more whats has been selectively chosen for print and whats been left out.

Its interesting to think of news as being less than correct and furthering the interests of sponsors and advertisers in developing an appropriate platform.

It also brings into news orientated websites and blogs into the spotlight too and it’d be interesting to look at how blogs fit into the propaganda model.

From a design point of view in a way your always looking to communicate a feeling or sense of value. Your manipulating your visitors opinion in just the same way. Its not considered propaganda but more a sales pitch.

Anyway maybe next time you watch the news its some food for thought!

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