We live in an interconnected world where the media now has immense power to influence the masses. This power is what renowned political activist and media analysts Noam Chomsky and Edward Hermann refer to as “manufacturing consent”. They note that powerful institutions now utilize the media to maintain the existing power structures at the expense of truth-telling and thus the masses can at times be misguided by the very tool that should be instrumental in keeping them informed.
Understanding “Manufacturing Consent”
“Manufacturing consent” is a phrase that can be attributed to Hermann and Chomsky who in their influential book of 1988 viewed the media as potent propaganda tools that can be used to sway the masses. Accordingly, the aim of the media is not to always lie to the masses only that sometimes they end up filtering information in such a way that they align with the agenda of powerful corporations or individuals (Herman & Chomsky, 1988). This leads to a lack of diverse viewpoints and as a result, people interpret important issues along narrow perspectives leading to the perpetuation of specific ideas.
Propaganda Model
As per the propaganda model which this theory stems from, there are five important filters which determine what the media views and how they cover it. They include ownership, advertising, sourcing, flak and Anti-ideologies. When it comes to ownership, it is important to note that the media industry has hegemonic conglomerates which own the few media houses present in many countries hence the lack of diversity in the portrayal of important issues. As for advertising, the media houses mainly make their revenue from advertising hence the power that advertisers have, making their interests go above the interests of the specific media houses. When it comes to sourcing, these media houses depend on corporations and the government for information, and as a result, they sometimes have to pass the official government narratives or corporate narratives on to the masses. Flak refers to the power of influential corporations or the government to alienate media houses with this alienation being detrimental to their operation Lastly, anti-ideologies as a filter mainly pertains to the phenomenon in which media houses find themselves aligning their ideologies with the dominant ideologies such as ant communism during the cold war periods. This can limit critical investigations into the information that the public truly needs.
How Can We Cope?
Given the limitations in the media landscape and the power that the elites have over them, as noted by Hermann and Chomsky, we need to be careful with the information fed to us by the mainstream media. The presence of social media platforms can decentralize information spreading and information seeking hence people need to tap into the power of social media to verify the authenticity of the information they come across. However, in this era of misinformation, even these platforms can be very dangerous if used purposefully for misinformation as we once saw during the “Cambridge Analytica” saga. Hence, verification of information from multiple sources remains our only shied from undue influence and misinformation.
Reference
Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media. Pantheon Books.
