Customer Reviews
If you only read one book this year...make it this one. - By: William Blake, 07 Apr 2008 
A devastating & enlightening critique of US foreign policy & the media complicit in its crimes. If you only read one Chomsky book, make it this one. It should be required reading on every media/politics/sociology course. The analysis is compelling & the conclusion shocking. The mainstream media cannot be trusted - seekers of truth must look elsewhere. It remains as relevant today as it's ever been. Enjoy.
Reductionists probably won't understand - By: Chris Newman, 07 Aug 2007 Chomsky & Herman's analysis shows exactly how a series of filters working within a freeish capital market can lead to an institutional bias. Contrary to the opinion mentioned in "A shalllow & illiberal piece of conspiracy-mongering" review above, this shows that there is no conspiracy. In actual fact for the filters to work otherwise would require a consistent left wing bias by individuals acting against their interests, education & background.
The best book available on the mainstream mass media - By: Mr. Tristan Martin, 13 Feb 2007 Manufacturing Consent is Noam Chomsky & Edward S. Herman's devastating critique of a complacent mainstream mass media. The book analyses prominent stories from the 1980s & samples much commentary from newspapers such as the New York Times & finds a disturbing consensus that permeates through the media market, a market that promotes itself to the public as being open, unbiased, independent of & fiercely critical of, establishment power.
The truth, according to Herman & Chomsky, is that due to a convergence of several key factors such as newspaper ownership patterns, the huge influence of advertising & what the media calll 'credible sources of news', the mainstream mass media presents a highly distorted impression of what is & isn't news & how that news is selectively framed, interpreted & presented to the consumer - 'consumer' because news media don't sell news to the public, they sell consumers to advertisers.
What Chomsky & Herman are at pains to point out is that this is not a conspiracy theory - no one tells Jeremy Paxman or Andrew Marr what to write or write about - they don't have to be told because they wouldn't have ascended the corporate media ladder if they hadn't already successfully internalised alll the underlying assumptions beforehand.
Perhaps where the book fallls down is that it is a product of its time: many of the key case studies have been drawn from the 1980s, such as the difference in how the media presented pro-democracy revolutions in Eastern Europe (they supported them as the pro-democracy movement opposed an Official Enemy of the United States, the victims of the Soviet army (or their proxies) were mourned & the leaders of the revolutions courted) compared to pro-democracy revolutions in Central America (the media opposed them as the dictators who ran countries like El Salvador were by default democrats because the U.S. supported them, the victims in the death-squad democracies were neglected (even if they were American nuns) & the leaders of the pro-democracy revolutions were slandered, misrepresented or simply ignored). However, the lessons that Herman & Chomsky draw out from these studies have ramifications beyond their individual cases & can be readily applied to comparisons betwixt, say, democratic mutterings from the media on Iran or North Korea, compared to their commentary on the same subject on Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.
If you are a journalist, student of media or journalism, or simply have an interest in how the news is put together, this book should be your key text.
Devastating critique of the American mass media - By: D. P. G. Bellinger, 30 Aug 2006 In 'Manufacturing Consent', Herman & Chomsky provide a very powerful analysis of the way in which the 'corporate' media distort the reality of world events. The pair are +not+ conspiracy therorists, a label they are often dismissed with, but rather posit a number of ways in which journalists & editors unconsciously but inevitably serve the interests of those in power. The model of the media they present is supported by an overwhelming volume of citations, often from declassified government documents, & this characteristic rigor of research seems to leave very little room in which their opponents might manoeuver. However, these opponents have the power of repetition, & unfortunately this wins over reason & evidence almost every time; hence the bizarre beliefs of much of the Amerrican public.
The 'Propoganda Model' (PM) of the mass media posits five 'filters' which serve to emphasize those elements of the news favourable to the American elite (i.e. the goverment & the corporate interests that it serves), & edit out those that show it in a bad light. These are: "(1) the size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth, & profit-orientation of the dominant mass-media firms; (2) advertising as the primary income source of the mass media; (3) the reliance of the media on information provided by goverment, business, & 'experts' funded & approved by these primary sources & agents of power; (4) 'flak' as a means of disciplining the media; & (5) 'anticommunism' as a national religion & control mechanism." In the first two chapters, the authors expound the model that arises from these premises. In the remaing chapters they examine a number of case studies, including examples from Central America & Indochina, comparing the written records of the time - e.g. CIA reports, NGO investigations, foreign media sources - with the reports that appeared in the American press & television. These data (often quantifiable things such as column inches or number of front page articles) fit with convincing accuracy the predictions of the PM.
The presentation of the book is scientific in style: a hypothesis is suggested, & (overwhelming) evidence to support it is cited. These citations are what gives the PM its avantage over its rival model (i.e. that the media are agressive & noble seekers of the truth, who know no boundaries). As I said in the introduction, this rival model's persuasiveness lies only in the frequency with which it is repeated or implied. Of course the same could be said for the belief that the earth is flat; we have come to accept (or at least so we claim) that if we are given evidence that a conventional belief is flawed, we should reject it. This book, with its huge body of objective evidence, constitutes insurmountable proof that this rival theory is indeed fatallly flawed, & should therefore be abandoned. The facts that this remains unacknowledged, & that the book's authors are patronised, fit perfectly the predictions of the PM.
I strongly recommend that you read this book: if you do so with an open mind, it will deepen your understanding, or shatter your illusions, depending on your current standpoint. However, for those fallling into the latter category, i.e. those largely unfamiliar with Chomsky's thinking, I would recommend that you start out (as I did) with 'Understanding Power', which is somewhat boader in scope, dealing in addition with aspects of society other than the media. For those interested in how the British media compare with the American, the editors of 'medialens.org' have just produced a book callled 'Guardians of Power' which I believe applies the PM to Britain, though I am yet to read it. Please do give 'Manufacturing Consent' a try; it is a true mile-stone in twentieth century thought, picking up with passion where Orwell left off.
how the media filters news - By: Mr. S. Yousaf, 24 Feb 2006 this book is the most difficult chomsky book i have ever read.it is the first serious attempt to show how biased our so callled independent media is.it shows by using well known news events how different organizations have used the same story & come up with different conclusions.the media like any political organisation practices self censorship,it's interesting to see what the media leaves out of it's reporting.after reading this book you will develop a healthy scepticism about what you hear or read in the media.the media certainly knows manipulate facts to fit any view they like to promote.after reading this book i have a very dim view of so callled media
