John Dewey – Our unfree Press (1961)

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John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, Georgist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey is one of the primary figures associated with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the fathers of functional psychology. More at Wikipedia

The only really fundamental approach to the problem is to inquire concerning the necessary effect of the present economic system upon the whole system of publicity; upon the judgment of what news is, upon the selection and elimination of matter that is published, upon the treatment of news in both editorial and news columns. The question, under this mode of approach, is not how many specific abuses there are and how they may be remedied, but how far genuine intellectual freedom and social responsibility are possible on any large scale under the existing economic regime.

Publishers and editors, with their commitments to “the public and social order” of which they are the beneficiaries, will often prove to be among the “chief enemies” of true “liberty of the press,” Dewey continued. It is unreasonable to expect “the managers of this business enterprise to do otherwise than as the leaders and henchmen of big business,” and to “select and treat their special wares from this standpoint.” Insofar as the ideological managers are “giving the public what it `wants’,” that is because of “the effect of the present economic system in generating intellectual indifference and apathy, in creating a demand for distraction and diversion, and almost a love for crime provided it pays” among a public “debauched by the ideal of getting away with whatever it can.”

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Manufacturing consent

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Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is a book written by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, in which the authors propose that the mass communication media of the U.S. “are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion”, by means of the propaganda model of communication.[1] The title derives from the phrase “the manufacture of consent,” employed in the book Public Opinion (1922), by Walter Lippmann (1889–1974).[2]

The book was first published in 1988 and was revised 20 years later to take account of developments such as the fall of the Soviet Union. There has been debate about how the internet has changed the public´s access to information since 1988.

Chomsky & Herman propaganda model

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The propaganda model is a conceptual model in political economy advanced by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky to explain how propaganda and systemic biases function in corporate mass media. The model seeks to explain how populations are manipulated and how consent for economic, social, and political policies is “manufactured” in the public mind due to this propaganda. The theory posits that the way in which corporate media is structured (e.g. through advertising, concentration of media ownership, government sourcing) creates an inherent conflict of interest that acts as propaganda for undemocratic forces.

https://archive.org/download/manufacturing_consent/Noam_Chomsky-Manufacturing_Consent_512kb.mp4

The book begins with the following quotation by John Milton:

They who have put out the people’s eyes, reproach them of their blindness.
~ John Milton

First presented in their 1988 book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, the propaganda model views private media as businesses interested in the sale of a product—readers and audiences—to other businesses (advertisers) rather than that of quality news to the public. Describing the media’s “societal purpose”, Chomsky writes, “… the study of institutions and how they function must be scrupulously ignored, apart from fringe elements or a relatively obscure scholarly literature”.[1] The theory postulates five general classes of “filters” that determine the type of news that is presented in news media. These five classes are: Ownership of the medium, Medium’s funding sources, Sourcing, Flak, and Anti-communism or “fear ideology”.

The first three are generally regarded by the authors as being the most important. In versions published after the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001, Chomsky and Herman updated the fifth prong to instead refer to the “War on Terror” and “counter-terrorism”, although they state that it operates in much the same manner.

Although the model was based mainly on the characterization of United States media, Chomsky and Herman believe the theory is equally applicable to any country that shares the basic economic structure and organizing principles that the model postulates as the cause of media biases.


Further References

Herman, E. S.. (2000). The Propaganda Model: a retrospective. Journalism Studies

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/146167000361195
DOI URL
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Herman, Edward S., & Chomsky, N.. (2002). A Propaganda Model. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of The Mass Media

Plain numerical DOI: 10.2307/2074220
DOI URL
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Chomsky, N.. (2002). An Exchange on Manufacturing Consent. I Can

Plain numerical DOI:
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Herman, E.. (1996). The Propaganda Model Revisited. Monthly Review

Plain numerical DOI: 10.14452/MR-069-08-2018-01_4
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Klaehn, J.. (2002). A critical review and assessment of Herman and Chomsky’s “propaganda model”. European Journal of Communication

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0267323102017002691
DOI URL
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Herman, E.. (2000). The Propaganda Model. Journalism Studies

Plain numerical DOI: 10.4135/9781412972024.n2025
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Fleming, P., & Oswick, C.. (2014). Educating consent? A conversation with Noam Chomsky on the university and business school education. Organization

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/1350508413514748
DOI URL
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Entman, R. M.. (1990). News as propaganda. Journal of Communication

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1990.tb02256.x
DOI URL
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Klaehn, J.. (2002). Corporate hegemony: A Critical Assessment of the Globe and Mail’s News Coverage of Near-Genocide in Occupied East Timor 1975–80. Gazette

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/174804850206400401
DOI URL
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