The document discusses the political economy/propaganda model developed by Herman and Chomsky. The model explains the performance of U.S. media in terms of the institutional structures and relationships within which they operate. It argues that media serve and propagandize on behalf of powerful societal interests that control and finance them. The propaganda model focuses on the inequality of wealth and power and its effects on mass media interests and choices. It identifies five "filters" that shape media behavior - ownership, advertising, sourcing from media and PR, flak (negative responses to media), and scapegoating. Entertainment is seen as diverting public attention from politics.

1. Political Economy/Propaganda
Model
Herman and Chomsky
Prof. Shashwati Goswami
Head of the Dept of Communication Research
Indian Institute of Mass Communication
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3. • "PROPAGANDA model," an analytical framework
that attempts to explain the performance of the
U.S. media in terms of the basic institutional
structures and relationships within which they
operate.
• Among their other functions, the media serve,
and propagandize on behalf of, the powerful
societal interests that control and finance them.
• The representatives of these interests have
important agendas and principles that they want
to advance, and they are well positioned to shape
and constrain media policy.
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4. • Explains the broad sweep of the mainstream
media's behavior and performance by their
corporate character and integration into the
political economy of the dominant economic
system.
• The propaganda model focuses on this inequality
of wealth and power and its multilevel effects on
mass-media interests and choices
• Entertainment is the contemporary equivalent of
the Roman "games of the circus" that diverts the
public from politics and generates a political
apathy that is helpful to preservation of the
status quo.
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6. FIVE FILTERS
• OWNERSHIP
The first has to do with ownership. Mass
media firms are big corporations. Often, they
are part of even bigger conglomerates. Their
end game? Profit. And so it’s in their interests
to push for whatever guarantees that profit.
Naturally, critical journalism must take second
place to the needs and interests of the
corporation.
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7. • In states where power is in the hands of state elite,
they have a monopolistic control over the media
through censorship, thus serving the dominant elite
• This control remains invisible when the media are
private and formal censorship is absent, portraying
themselves as the voice of public
• What is not evident (and remains un-discussed in the
media) is the limited nature of such critiques, as well
as the huge inequality in command of resources, and
its effect both on access to a private media system
and on its behavior and performance.
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8. FIVE Filters contd…
• ADVERTISING
The second filter exposes the real role of
advertising. Media costs a lot more than
consumers will ever pay. So who fills the gap?
Advertisers. And what are the advertisers paying
for? Audiences. And so it isn’t so much that the
media are selling you a product — their output.
They are also selling advertisers a product —
YOU.”
• Vineet Jain: “We are not in the newspaper
business. If 90 percent of your revenues come
from advertising, you are in the advertising
business."
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9. FIVE Filters contd…
• THE MEDIA ELITE
The establishment manages the media through
the third filter. Journalism cannot be a check on
power because the very system encourages
complicity. Governments, corporations, big
institutions know how to play the media game.
They know how to influence the news narrative.
They feed media scoops, official accounts,
interviews with the ‘experts’. They make
themselves crucial to the process of journalism.
So, those in power and those who report on
them are in bed with each other.
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10. FIVE Filters contd…
• FLAK
If you want to challenge power, you’ll be
pushed to the margins. When the media –
journalists, whistleblowers, sources – stray
away from the consensus, they get ‘flak’. This
is the fourth filter. When the story is
inconvenient for the powers that be, you’ll see
the flak machine in action discrediting
sources, trashing stories and diverting the
conversation.
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11. FIVE Filters contd…
• THE COMMON ENEMY
To manufacture consent, you need an enemy
— a target. That common enemy is the fifth
filter. Communism. Terrorists. Immigrants. A
common enemy, a bogeyman to fear, helps
corral public opinion.
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THUS BIG MEDIA BEHAVES
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18. Criticism
• Herman and Chomsky do not sufficiently consider
the complexities of the powerful elites that they
believe can manage and manipulate media.
• This is an oversimplification that government and
large corporation have common interests
• They do not acknowledge that audience may
resist and reject mass-mediated propaganda.
SUGGESTED READING:
https://chomsky.info/consent01/
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