The model in question: a response to Klaehn on Herman and Chomsky

Abstract

In a clear and strongly stated article in Volume 17(2) of this journal, Jeffrey Klaehn argues that the propaganda model of media political relations, as advanced in the opening chapter of Herman and Chomsky (1988), offers an ignored but much needed perspective for media research. Its neglect, suggests Klaehn, may have a lot to do with the way in which it reveals disturbing truths about the workings of the media system in capitalist societies. In contrast with this argument, the author suggests that, despite the continuing value of Herman and Chomsky’s substantive analyses of international political news, particularly as this relates to the U.S.’s foreign policy and is reported within U.S. media, there is very little by way of new theoretical insight that the propaganda model can bring to European media research. Indeed, there are signs that taking it more seriously as a conceptual framework may actually hinder the critical analysis. Some of the terms employed in Klaehn’s exposition seem to the author to point to this unfortunate decision.