Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media

Abstract

In the first chapter, the authors outline a propaganda model which describes the forces that cause the mass media to play a propaganda role, the processes whereby they mobilize bias, and the pattern of news choices that ensue. In the succeeding chapters, the authors demonstrate the applicability of the propaganda model to actual media performance. A central theme is that the observable pattern of indignant campaigns and suppressions, of shading and emphasis, and of selection of context, premises, and general agenda, is highly functional for established power and responsive to the needs of the U.S. government and major power groups. Chapter 2 takes up this theme, and is followed in chapter 3 by a case study demonstrating that the power of the government to fix frames of reference and agendas and to exclude inconvenient facts from public inspection is impressively displayed in the coverage of elections in Central America. The three remaining chapters apply these themes to coverage of the Indochina wars and the plot to assassinate the Pope.