Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media

Edward S Herman, Noam Chomsky

Random House, Mar 11, 2010 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 464 pages

We normally think that the press are 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 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 twenty years after first publication, Manufacturing Consent remains the most important critique of the mass media.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Paul_S - LibraryThing

Book is guilty of cherry picking and bias of which it accuses the media. It's a legitimate concern but the treatment is hardly objective and there many more forces that shape the media than government and wealthy people. Maybe the book was slightly more correct when it was originally published.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - MiaCulpa - LibraryThing

Noam Chomsky is quite possibly the most intelligent man alive (this is being written after Stephen Hawking's death and noting that there are probably more intelligent women around but the media ...

About the author

Edward S. Herman is Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Among his books are Corporate Control, Corporate Power; The Real Terror Network: Terrorism in Fact and Propaganda; Demonstration Elections: U. S.-Staged Elections in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam and El Salvador (with Frank Brodhead) and The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection (with Frank Brodhead). Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. A member of the American Academy of Science, he has published widely in both linguistics and current affairs. His previous books include At War with Asia, Towards a New Cold War, Fateful Triangle: The U. S., Israel and the Palestinians, Necessary Illusions, Hegemony or Survival, Deterring Democracy and Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
• Authors: Edward S Herman, Noam Chomsky
• Edition: annotated
• Publisher: Random House, 2010
• ISBN: 1407054058, 9781407054056
• Length: 464 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies; Language Arts & Disciplines / Journalism; Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory; Political Science / Propaganda; Social Science / Media Studies