The social media platforms seem to be free today, we read news on them, we share our lives on them, we chat with our friends on them. Everything looks good, but the reality is that our “eyes” are secretly controlled by capital and power. The truths are usually hidden deep inside where they don’t want you to see them. This is the so-called manufacturing consent.
The concept of The Propaganda Model was proposed by Herman in 1988. In his book he believes that the mainstream media outlets in the western were driven by the interests of the business and overly relied on advertising as their source of profit. Which means we see what the corporates what us to see instead of what exactly happened. There are four filters to the news. The first one is the ownership filter. The corporate who owns the media has the full power on it. The second one is the advertising filter. It means the advertisers controls the media output consequently as the media need to concern the advertisers’ need when publishing news. The third one is the sourcing filter. Most of the medias and audiences will prefer to listen to those official news and “expert” which make other news resources lack of audiences. As advertisers looks favorably on medias who have more audiences, the small medias will eventually close down as lack of audiences and source of income. Next is the flak filter. Like its name, the flak filter shoot down the medias who posted the thing they don’t want the public to see by criticizing and even summon them to the court. The last one is the anti-communism filter. It is to set up a enemy to the audiences for their political or financial need.
Until nowadays, the Propaganda Model is still applicable in most of the mainstream medias in both capitalism and communism countries. For example, there is a website called EJAtlas displaying news from all around the world with location on the map. Everything on it looks fair, but as we dig down we can see that there are relatively fewer negative news in the European Union and their allies’ regions. Is it because Europeans are better than the others? Is European Union the last paradise on Earth? No. Take a look at the sponsors list. European Union, one of the six sponsored organization. No one will give money to the others with no reason, European Union sponsored the website in order to control the negative information about them to build a positive impression of them internationally for political need. Another example was widely argued in China. In April 2023, the panda called YaYa flew back to China from the America. Lots of people was carousal about it. People make songs, write wishing words to YaYa, curse the America. The news that day was all about the panda. Social media platforms like TikTok China, Weibo have nothing else but the news from the CCTV telling that YaYa had came back to China. People don’t know was two month ago, a coal mine in Nei Mongol had a severe accident caused 53 deaths. This news should be a breaking news raising people and companies’ awareness toward mine safety. Instead, this news was not displayed on any mainstream medias in China. In the two months, the medias try to cover it with the come back of YaYa. The power behind pushed the media platforms to reduce the popularity of the negative reports to save the reputation of the company. More specifically, keep the coal company alive as the government just released a new propaganda on raising coal mining as China was experiencing electricity shortage and need vast amount of coal for that. 53 human lives are certainly more important than a panda, but the power behind not scruple get revealed by the people to keep the coal operating.
Afterall, when applying Herman’s Propaganda Model to daily life we can see is the news being filtered and who’s the one trying to deceive the public.
It’s quite shocking seeing the example you’ve brought, which really emphasizes how social media, or just the general media are influenced by power and money, and how ownership and advertising are shaping news through filters and impacting public perception.
I like your article very much. Your article captures the key points of the encoding and decoding process. In my opinion, capital often affects the process of information decoding. Your example proves this very well. You used a very bold example. It is indeed like this. No matter what the purpose is, the media in certain countries and regions often use positive energy in order to maintain social stability. , positive news to cover negative news that may arouse opinions. This is why it is often difficult for people to look at some things objectively.
Hi, your understanding of the concept is really very clear and it also allows the reader to easily understand Herman’s propaganda model. However, I don’t think you have combined this theory with the examples very well when you tell your examples, which might be something to improve. However, the truth revealed by the two events, the coal mine explosion and the pandas, is very shocking!
Hi, I like your example on manufacturing consent, it is special that media didn’t fool with the public but using another news to cover up the scandal. However, I wish you could have some more connections between the theory and example, it would be better on you fluency. But it is a great article afterall, I like it a lot.