The phrase “manufacturing consent” literally means “producing agreement.” It is about how people come to agree or seem to agree with political and media narratives. It describes how governments, corporations, and media systems help shape public opinion so citizens ‘agree’ with official agendas. Questions whether democracy truly reflects independent public judgment. This phrase was first introduced by Walter Lippmann in the 1920s and later reinterpreted by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in the 1980s.
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Walter Lippmann was an American journalist and political commentator. In 1922, he published a book called “Public Opinion.” In it, he argued that the world is too complex for ordinary citizens to understand directly.
So people rely on simplified images and stories provided by the media. According to Lippmann, because of this complexity, societies need “experts” and “elites” to organize and guide public opinion. He called this process the “manufacture of consent.”
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In 1988, Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman published a book called “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.” They borrowed Lippmann’s phrase, but they completely reversed its moral stance. They claimed that modern mass media serve elite interests rather than inform the public. To explain how this works, they introduced what they called the “Propaganda Model”, a framework of “five filters” that shape what kind of information reaches the public.
The Five Filter Model include Ownership, Advertising, Sourcing, Flak and Ideology.
1. Ownership
Most of the media outlets are owned by large corporations, avoiding content that threatens their economic interests.
2. Advertising
Because media depends on advertisers for revenue, they tend to avoid stories that upset advertisers or the business world.
3. Sourcing
Journalists rely on government and corporate sources. That dependency can limit critical coverage.
4. Flak
Negative feedback or disciplinary pressure, such as lawsuits or public criticism, can discourage media from challenging power.
5. Ideology
The mainstream concept determines the acceptable way of narration.
In summary, Walter Lippmann described how consent is organized, while Noam Chomsky revealed how it is manipulated. It encourages us to question who benefits from the stories we are told and whether our agreement is freely given or carefully manufactured. As citizens, our task is to stay alert, question what we see, and look beyond the headlines. Only then can democracy be something more than just manufactured agreement.
Reference
Herman, E.S. & Chomsky, N., 2010. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Random House.
