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Noam Chomsky on manufacturing consent

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, in which the authors propose that the mass communication media of the U.S. “are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalised assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion”.

Propaganda is information that is used primarily to influence an audience. This process of ‘manipulation’ or ‘persuasion’ works in five ways:

  • Structures of ownership: Large companies working together to deliver propaganda
  • The role of advertising: Influential language and media to gain and manipulate an audience into buying a product that would potentially ‘better their lives’.
  • Links with ‘The Establishment’
  • Diversionary tactics – ‘flack’
  • Uniting against a ‘common enemy’

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