Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, and activist known for his criticism of US foreign policy. He co-created theories on linguistics and developed the theory of Manufacturing Consent, which argues that mass media distorts news to suit business interests like profit and advertisers as well as the government. Chomsky identified five filters that shape media reporting: ownership and profit motives, reliance on advertising, sourcing of information, fear of negative responses, and use of fearmongering about threats.

1. Noam Chomsky
By Sarah Byard

2. Who Is Noam Chomsky?
• Noam Chomsky is an American linguist,
philosopher, scientist and activist.
• He is known for his criticism of the US foreign
policy.
• He is the co-creator/creator of the Chomsky
hierarchy theorem, the universal grammar
theory and the Chomsky–Schützenberger
theorem.

3. Manufacturing Consent
• Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is
a book written by Noam Chomsky and Edward S Herman, which
also inspired the documentary Manufacturing Consent: Noam
Chomsky and the Media.
• In it, Chomsky discusses the idea that the news media is a business.
• This means that the news is subject to the same bias as any other
product, so what they air, how they report and what items they
report on will be based on need for profit.
• This means they distort the news to retain viewers, and also to keep
in favour of their sponsors ie. Sensationalising stories to make them
seem more extreme and interesting, or not airing a story which
shows their sponsor in a bad light.

4. Government Influences.
• Chomsky states that the news is affected by
the government.
• If a TV programme, newspaper etc. shows the
government in a bad light, it is very subtly
shunned out of access, meaning that it loses
readers and profit.
• This means that they have to distort the news
to suit the government/private investors, or
they will lose business.

5. The Five Filters Of Editorial Bias
• Chomsky says that there are five things
affecting the integrity of news reporting,
known as editorially-distorting filters.
• Size, Ownership and Profit Orientation
• The Advertising License To Do Business
• Sourcing Mass Media News
• Flak and the Enforcers
• Anti-Communism

6. • Size, Ownership and Profit Orientation: the
most prominent mass media outlets are
businesses which are run for profit so must
cater to their owners’ interests.
• The Advertising License To Do Business:
media outlets depend on advertising, so must
bend to suit the political prejudices and
economic wants of their advertisers.
• Sourcing Mass Media News: the news outlets
cannot be everywhere at every time, so have
routine places for news reporters to be. It is
hard for non-routinely captured clips to enter
the news.

7. • Flak and Enforcers: ‘Flak’ is the term given to
negative responses to a media statement or
programme. This is very bad for that company, as
it can lead to them losing business and profit. To
avoid getting ‘flak’, news stations will avoid
reporting certain opinions or facts.
• Anti-Communism: this was an original filter in the
book, but Chomsky has later argued that it has
been replaced by ‘fear’. This plays on peoples
fears and gives them a ‘big bad’ to focus on. This
can be used to ostracize ideas or people or
companies, or to frighten the public. Noam
Chomsky once said ‘if people are frightened, they
will accept authority’. It was originally called the
anti communist filter because Communism was
seen as the major threat to the entire world.