With the accelerated integration of the global economy and the rapid development of information technology on the Internet, the real-time dissemination of news and information has greatly increased, and people can have a glimpse of the world’s news without leaving their homes.
After years of development, the news media industry has absolute power and extensive influence, almost monopolising the way we learn about the world in general. We read and browse the news extensively and talk about our own opinions, but is what we see always the true picture of the news? The answer is no. Freedom is often accompanied by a distortion of the truth to achieve a sense of “manufacturing consent”.
So since we’re talking about manufacturing consent, we need to understand Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model.
The Propaganda model of media control was introduced by Edward. S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in their book ‘Manufacturing Consent – The Political Economy of the Mass Media’. This theory states how propaganda works in a mass media.
The model attempts to understand how populations are manipulated and how social, economic and political attitudes are formed in people’s minds through propaganda. According to Herman and Chomsky’s theory, the media as a business sells its products (readers and subscribers) to other commercial entities that advertise in the media, rather than fulfilling the function of disseminating news for the public.
This is because the major media organisations are in the hands of a few elites. Major news channels, newspapers and other mass media tools are part of large corporations and conglomerates. The information provided to the public by the media will vary according to the interests of these organisations. Here, the original form of news is distorted. That is why Herman and Chomsky refer to several factors that affect news as filters. News is filtered through these factors before it reaches the audience or the public.
In our daily lives, the media tends to manipulate the news and control the minds of the masses by distorting the truth and data in order to present itself in a good light to the people and the outside world as well. For example, in 2021 – on the 20th of July in Henan Province, China, there was an extremely rare mega flood that lasted for almost a week.
This exceptionally heavy rainstorm caused a large number of casualties and property losses. However, in the course of the disaster relief and rescue efforts, media reports not only concealed the true figures of casualties, but also misrepresented the situation.
The official media used one after another such phrases as “not encountered in 50 years”, “not encountered in a hundred years”, “not encountered in a thousand years” and even “not encountered in 5,000 years”, which lacked any scientific basis, but seldom mentioned the real situation of the flooding of reservoirs around Zhengzhou City without any warning and the casualties suffered by the people in the affected areas.
Finally, Xu Liyi, then secretary of the CPC Zhengzhou Municipal Committee, was also removed from his post for underreporting the number of people who died and disappeared due to the flooding.
As you can see, the news and truth as we perceive it is often filtered and sifted through layers, and the issue is so involved that it is difficult to get the full picture of what’s going on through a single piece of news.
1.Fuchs, C. (2018). Propaganda 2.0: Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model in the Age of the Internet, Big Data and Social Media in the Age of the Internet, Big Data and Social Media. The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness.
2.Model, David. “The Applicability of Herman’s and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model Today.” The College Quarterly 8 (2005): n. pag.
Yuwei Li w1900042
I couldn’t agree with you more, it’s true that the “news” we see in our lives isn’t really the truth of the news.
Hi Yuwei,
This was such a good read. I could rethink a lot of issues and opinions about the news we consume on a daily basis thanks to your blog, Do you think that the news we consume is sometimes fabricated or exaggerated for the sake of grabbing attention?, you mentioned that the major media organisations are in the hands of the elitist, that means that whatever news we receive is being monitored and altered by these elitist to their liking so that we can get manipulated by their fake facade right?
Thanks！Yes, in the hands of the elite, the news is just a means they use to control public opinion, we have to always be CRITICAL in our thinking and have our own ideas
This is a great blog! It’s very clear that your example has Herman and Chomsky’s theory in it. I totally agree with how you have said ” the news and truth as we perceive it is often filtered and sifted through layers”.
Thank you 😊