The Propaganda Model

1
The Propaganda Model

• From Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomskys (1988)
  Manufacturing Consent
• The Political Economy of the Mass Media
• New York Pantheon

2
Propaganda Model

• Propaganda operates in privately-owned media just
  as surely as in publicly or state owned media
• The elites dominate the media, and marginalize
  dissidents
• Controversy is strictly controlled, within the
  limits of an elite-defined consensus
• Does not exclude all things that challenge elite
  interests e.g. when there are disagreements
  within elite circles (ref. Gramsci)
• When elite interests are contested in news media,
  controversy is typically handled discretely (e.g.
  ignored in broadcast, but receiving some
  treatment in print media)
• Propaganda most clearly in evidence in situations
  of crisis, whether the crisis is self-induced
  or externally-generated

3
Raw News has to Pass through 5 Successive Filters

• 1. Size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth,
  and profit orientation
• 2. Advertising as primary income source
• 3. Reliance of media on information provided by
  government, business and experts funded and
  approved by government and business
• 4. Flak as a means of disciplining the media
• 5. Anticommunism as a national religion and
  control mechanism
• Should we add two more?
• (6) voluntary prostration / self-censorship
• (7) media infiltration by intelligence agencies,
  and purchase of influence

4
(1) Size,Ownership, Profit

• Six cable sources of news owned by three
  conglomerates (AOL Time Warner, General Electric
  and News Corporation)
• 40 of cable systems controlled by two
  corporations, Comcast and AOL Time Warner
• Direct-to-home satellite delivery controlled by
  two corporations, Echostar and DirecTV DirecTV
  may be sold to News Corporation
• Of 25 top-rated cable channels, 20 are at least
  one-third owned by one of the five big media
  behemoths.  In
• In radio, Clear Channel and Viacom reach 42 of
  listeners and rake in 45 of industry
  revenues Clear Channel part owner of Hispanic
  Broadcasting Services which may soon be acquired
  by Univision, one of two networks that have
  captured the Hispanic U.S. market.
• More than 70 of consumers live in communities
  served by only a single newspaper
• In 1992, independent producers in Hollywood
  created 16 new TV series, this was down to only
  one in 2002. 
• Potential of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
  stations has been neutralized or reversed,
  meanwhile, by miserly governmental financing and
  dependence on corporate sponsorship. There is no
  equivalent in U.S. to European public service
  broadcasting tradition.

5
(2) Advertising

• 2 main sources of media profit advertising and
  subscription
• Mainstream sell audiences to advertisers
  ratings are crucial one point in ratings
  equivalent to hundreds of millions in ad rev
• Advertisers like wealthier audiences
• Advertisers like congenial buyer-mood
  programming they punish critical programming
• Many niche media (incl. most womens magazines)
  exist almost solely to satisfy advertiser need
• Television under pressure to maintain flow in
  audience attention, also exacerbates advertiser
  pressure
• Many large audience media in the past have failed
  if they have not secured the right audience for
  advertisers blue-collar/ethnic media suffer
  disproportionately

6
(3) Soucing

• Most news from authoritative (official)
  sources
• Official sources are safest, cheapest
• Official sources deny access to critics
• News net posts journalists in official sites
  generating frequent/reliable/cheap news
• Journalists dependent on official public
  relations machineries that subsidize media
• Official sources take advantage of media routines
  and dependency to manage the media
• Dissident sources bought out as corporate
  consultants

7
(4) Flak (punishment)

• Flak negative responses to media
• Can be uncomfortable, distracting, costly
  perhaps involving court actions, withdrawal of
  advertising, blacklisting of journalists or
  publications
• Ability to produce flak is related to power
• Corporate community creates institutions to
  produce flak (e.g. Accuracy in Media)

8
(5) Anticommunism

• Communism as ultimate evil (esp. for property
  owners)
• Keeps liberals on defensive

9
Vietnam

• Media for the most part were conformist e.g.
• U.S. intervention in 1965 enjoyed almost
  universal support, incl. deployment of troops,
  bombing of North Vietnam, and acceleration of
  bombing of South Vietnam
• No questioning of righteousness of American cause
  or of necessity for intervention
• Political and military motives painted as
  idealistic in the cause of freedom.
• Invasion of someone elses country, or support
  for a highly unpopular, undemocratic government
  never questioned as problematic
• Later dissent primarily about tactics costs, as
  these issues increasingly of concern to elites
• Views of dissidents and resisters virtually
  excluded

10
Vietnam (2)

• The debate was bounded
• On the one side, by the hawks who felt that
  with sufficient dedication the U.S. could succeed
  in defending South Vietnam, controlling the
  population and thus establishing
  American-style democracy, and..

11
Vietnam (3)

• On the other side, by the doves who doubted
  that success could be achieved in these noble
  aims at reasonable cost
• Later, there arrived the owls who observed the
  proceedings judiciously without succumbing to the
  illusions of either extreme of this wrenching
  controversy.
• Reporting and interpretation of the facts were
  framed in accordance with these principles.

12
Vietnam (4)

• Unlike its reporting of Soviet invasion of
  Afghanistan, U.S. reporting of Vietnam
• Reported Washington statements as fact
• Questioned officials only on basis of U.S.
  military field sources
• Never bothered to see war from point of view of
  enemy (S.V. peasants)
• U.S. invaders regarded as victims of Vietnamese
  aggression
• Refugee testimony largely ignored
• Used derogatory term Viet Cong for enemy rather
  than National Liberation Front

13
Vietnam (5)

• Largely reported from Washington
• Concentrated on what government said, whether it
  was true, and whether policy worked, then
  answering all these questions on basis of
  government sources (!)

14
Vietnam (6)

• Ignoring context (1)
• U.S. had never even been invited in by its
  puppet regime in S.Vietnam
• U.S. had subverted 1956 Geneva agreement
  (unification following elections), by
  establishing client state (GVN) that rejected the
  elections, brutalized the opposition, forcing
• Viet Minh cadres to violence in self-defense
• Kennedy escalated involvement in bombing,
  defoliation, and formation of concentration camps
  (strategic hamlets)

15
Vietnam (7)

• Ignoring context (2)
• Even Kennedys administration recognized that NLF
  had 50 support among the people, that most
  others supported the Buddhists, and hardly any at
  all liked the U.S. backed governments whose sole
  qualification for rule was that they were willing
  to fight and evade political settlement. Any
  elections excluded the main party NLF.
• U.S. military history records indiscriminate
  killing and extreme violence against innocents
  to force civilians to strategic hamlets

16
Vietnam (8)

• Conclusion
• The U.S.attacked S.Vexpanding its aggression to
  all of Indochina with lethal and long-term
  effects. Media coverage or other commentary on
  these events that does not begin by recognizing
  these essential facts is mere apologetics for
  terrorism and murderous aggression
• There was no discussion on whether the United
  States was guilty of aggression in its direct
  attack.reflects the overwhelming dominance of
  the state propaganda system and its ability to
  set the terms of thought and discussion, even for
  those who believe themselves to be taking an
  adversarial stance