The 5 filters that manufacture consent.

How does Noam Chomsky fit in with The Daily Mail and The i.

Ownership – The Daily Mail is owned by a large conglomerate called the Daily Mail General Trust, However The i used to be an independent newspaper until it was bought by Daily Mail General Trust in 2019.

Advertising – Because the target audience for the Daily Mail is lower-middle-class British women so they would try to advertise products that would be appealing and affordable to them. As with the i, because the target audience is much broader as it is for lapsed readers of quality newspapers of all ages, they would advertise products that could be for everyone.

The media elite shows how they can influence stories which means they are no longer true. Newspapers will do this so that their readers will have a certain view on specific events or topics. With the Daily Mail they may change certain details in a story so that their readers see it how they want it to be seen. This has been brought upon with the Daily Mail getting backlash for having “unreliable” stories. With the i they have been known to produce much more reliable stories.

Flak shows us how the media can influence what media we see. For example because the Daily Mail supports the conservatives, they will only show positive news about the Tory’s rather than negative. With the i, they are a centrist newspaper meaning they’re neither left or right wing so they have no political preference so they will have negative and positive news about all parties.

The Common enemy filter suggests that they need a common enemy to be able to produce more intriguing news.

The paper is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust.

Jonathan Harmsworth is the great-grandson of one of the original co-founders, and is now the current chairman and controlling shareholder of the Daily Mail and General Trust.

A survey in 2014 showed that the average age of readers for the Daily Mail was 58, and it had the lowest demographic for 15- to 44- year-old among the major British dailies.

The Daily Mail has been noted for its unreliability and widely criticized for its printing of sensationalist and inaccurate scare stories of science and medical research.

The head office is located in Northcliffe House in Kensington, London.

Events ran by the Daily Mail and General (DMG) events include ADIPEC, Global Petroleum Show, Gastech, The Big 5, Index and The Hotel Show.

In addition to housing the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) head office, the building also houses the offices of The Independent series, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard, Metro and Metro.co.uk.

The Mail on Sunday – The sister paper of the Daily Mail, published weekly on Sundays. First published in 1982.

Risk Management Solutions (RMS), which targets the global property and casualty reinsurance industry, producing risk analysis models, services, expertise and data solutions for use in the quantification and management of catastrophic risk, is involved in catastrophe risk modelling, and is a subsidiary of the DMGT group.

5 quotes from The Theory of Liberal Free Press:

1. “The market-based press is independent because it owes allegiance only to the public.”
2. “In the thirty years after 1977, there was a major expansion of local press concentration, but a small reduction in the dominant three groups’ share of national press circulation”
3. “News papers have poured money into developing news sites, thereby pre-empting the rise of rivals.”
4. “The press commissions had slightly more success in seeking to keep the press and broadcasting industries separate, in the interests of maintaining media pluralism.”
5. “Public dissatisfaction with the press, registered periodically in opinion polls, continued to be high”.

5 Quotes from The Role of Public Service Broadcasting:

1. “The influence of broadcasting upon the mind and speech of the nation’, made it an urgent necessity in the national interest that the broadcasting service at all times should be conducted in the best possible manner and to the best possible advantage of the people.”
2. “Peacock exposed many of the contradictions in the Thatcherite espousal of market forces.”
3. “The independence of broadcasting from the states has recently been seen as the most important condition of the services accountability.”
4. “The significance of broadcasting independence is also disputed. One side suggests that the independence is functional and must be extended to guarantee accountable broadcasting”

Noam Chomsky – The 5 filters that manufacture consent

Chomsky talks about 5 filters which include: Ownership, Advertising, The media elite, Flak and the Common enemy. Chomsky talks about ownership and how mass media forms are large corporations or even conglomerates. He says how every business has the same goal which is money/profit. He says that every company puts profit as their first priority over everything else.

He shows us how advertising actually is and how the advertisers aren’t so much as selling the audience their product, but instead are selling US as the product.

This tells us how they media control what we see as they can influence news, feed then scoops of information. So, those in power and those who report on them are in bed with each other.

Flak shows us how they block any news that will either discredit them in a negative way so they control it and trash stories they don’t like.

This filter suggests that you need a common enemy as a way to have more intriguing news. This is because news with a more dramatic feel gets more attention, for example, terrorism.

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony

Hegemony is seen as the domination of a diverse society by the ruling class. This means that the society is run by a higher power which is made to implement set order in a society. This means that the beliefs and perceptions in the society will be formed by the ruling class.

OH – Previously known as OH Comely, is an independent magazine published by the small company Iceberg Press

• OH is part of the development in lifestyle and environmental movements of the early 21st century
• Oh is an independent magazine differing from mens health
• Its representation of femininity reflects an aspect of the feminist movement which celebrates authenticity and empowerment
• The first issue was published in 2010
• A mindfulness magazine with a fresh perspective
• The creators of Oh magazine identify themselves as being an arms-wide-open mag – inclusive, down-to-earth, and heart-led.
• Oh Comely publishes craft, DIY, creative non-fiction, photography and illustration, as well as reader submissions. 

Key words:

• Media concentration / Conglomerates / Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) – Media concentration is a process where progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. a media conglomerate is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media including television, radio and publishing. Media globalization is the worldwide integration of media through the cross-cultural exchange of ideas, while technological globalization refers to the cross-cultural development and exchange of technology.
• Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration – Vertical integration is a company that owns different businesses in the same chain of distribution and production.
• Gatekeepers
• Regulation / Deregulation
• Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers

David Hesmondhalgh – Hesmondhalgh is Professor of Media, Music and Culture at the University of Leeds. His interests include the cultural and creative industries, cultural policy, the politics of musical experience, and how ‘cultural platforms’ are transforming media. His books include The Cultural Industries, first published in 2002, described by Herbert et al. in their Media Industry Studies as “a formative text for many who began their research careers at the start of the century” and as “extensively updated to keep pace with the new issues developing in an era of social and internet-distributed media”.

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities.

Separation, duality.

W.E.B Du Bois suggests that we have a double consciousness, which means we have an internal conflict.

Theory about NOW. linked to media digitization. Referential, refers to itself.

Complicated and fragmentary set of inter-relationships. Fragmentary consumption = Fragmentary identities

Preoccupation with visual style.

Key characteristics of postmodernism is the development of fragmented, alienated individuals living in fragmented societies.