Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s A Propaganda Model, brings to light
government manipulation within the news, and how public perception is shaped by
this higher power. Overall the public seems to understand the generic idea that
the mass media is a tool for communicating messages, but what most of our
society doesn’t realize is that powerful sources are regularly managing the
media to manipulate them. Herman and Chomsky articulate that the mass media
“traces the routes by which money and power are able to filter out the news fit
to print, marginalize dissent, and allow the government and dominant private
interests to get their messages across to the public” (204). This type of media
propaganda in the news is especially ubiquitous because of the current
presidential debates and upcoming election.
If it has been made clear to
certain people that the news continues to construct what the government wants
us to hear, why haven’t we tried putting an end to it? I have always believed
that as citizens of the United States, our government should always be
completely honest with us, providing us with constant truth. After thinking
more in depth about construction in the news, I argue with myself, that maybe
some things are better left unsaid. By managing the media in a certain way, the
government could actually be protecting us from chaos among our society. In
many films and television shows we have been presented with an idea that
sharing certain information with the general public could result in wreaking
havoc. For example, in the show Lost,
two of the main characters keep certain life threatening information from the
other survivors because they realized that by informing everyone would allude
to chaos. By causing chaos in their camp, they wouldn’t be able to take care of
the problem successfully, resulting in people getting hurt. Lost demonstrates the use of filtered
information as a form of safety precaution. Even though they were not completely
honest with the other survivors, they kept their best interest in mind, which may
go along with our own governments reasoning for keeping certain things from us.
“The raw material of news must pass through successive filters, leaving only
the cleansed residue fit to print” (Herman and Chomsky 204).
The article below, Fourteen
Propaganda Techniques Fox “News” Uses to Brainwash Americans, brings to
light some of the tactics that many news stations use day by day. I decided to
include this article, because of its relevance to Herman and Chomsky’s theories,
within the reading.
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