THE PROPAGANDA MODEL AND ITS INDIAN

RELVANCE
Based on Manufacturing Consent,
by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky

MASC 514 INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION 21 AUG 2015

Presented by S Arulselvan

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky

describe the media as businesses which
sell a product (readers) to other
businesses (advertisers).
In their propaganda model of the media
they point to five filters which determine
what we read in the newspapers and see
on the television.
These filters produce a very narrow view
of the world that is in line with government
policy and business interests.

In a democracy, a properly functioning news media is

of paramount importance. What functions should the
news media have in a democracy?
Report events objectively as
they occur, to allow citizens to
make informed political choices
Control governmental abuses of
power, through investigative
journalism

According to Herman and Chomsky, the US media fail

in these respects. In fact, they consider the US media a
propaganda system. They compare the system to the
propaganda systems of totalitarian states and observe
that,
It is much more difficult to see a propaganda
system at work where the media are private and
formal censorship is absent. This is especially
true when the media actively compete,
periodically attack and expose corporate and
governmental malfeasance*, and aggressively
portray themselves as spokesmen for free
speech and the general community interest.
*Malfeasance is the willful and intentional action that injures a party

They continue by claiming that,

What is not evident (and remains
undiscussed in the media) is the limited
nature of such critiques.

They explain the failure of the US news media with their

propaganda model, which
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 message across to the public.

a. Purpose of the Media

i. The mass media serve as a system for
communicating messages and symbols to the
general populace (1).
ii. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and
inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values,
beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate
them into the institution structures of the large
society (1).
iii. Fulfilling this role in a world of concentrated
wealth and conflict of interest requires propaganda.

b. Essential Ingredients for the Propaganda Model (or

News Filters)
i. The size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth,
and profit orientation
ii. Advertising as the primary income source
iii. Reliance upon information provided by
government, business, and experts
by primary sources and agents of power.
iv. Flak as a means of disciplining the media
v. Anticommunism as a national religion and control
mechanism

The model suggests the existence of a set of news filters,

which dilute the raw news content into a content that suits
the dominant corporate and governmental interests.

Financial ownership
Funding through advertising
Reliance on PR
Flak
Anti-communism

FILTER 1: Corporate ownership

The American media is increasingly
concentrated in the hands of a small number of
private companies, owned by wealthy individuals.
The pressures of stockholders, directors and
bankers are also powerful forces affecting the
content of these companies' media content.
Thus "market-profit-oriented forces" (p.14)
compete with news value.

FILTER 1: Corporate ownership

i. Media entities in 1986
a. 1,500 daily newspapers
b. 11,000 magazines
c. 9,000 radio and 1,500 TV stations
d. 2,400 book publishers
e. 7 media studios
ii. Monopoly
a. 29 of the largest media systems account for over half of the
output of newspapers, and most of the sales and audiences in
magazines, broadcasting, books, and movies (4).
iii. Top Tier Defines Agenda
a. The media is tiered and are measured by prestige, resources,
and outreach.
b. Top tier comprises between 10 24 systems.
c. It is the top tier, along with government and wires services, that
defines the news agenda and supplies much of the national and
international news to the lower tiers of the media, and thus for the
general public (5).

FILTER 1: Corporate ownership

iv. Financial Data for 24 Large Media Corporations
a. See chart 1-1 on page 6 7
b. All but one have assets worth over $1 billion
c. The medium size is $2.6 billion
d. have after tax profits of over $100 million
v. Consolidation
a. Profitability in a deregulated market has led to an increase in
takeovers and takeover threats.
vi. Control of Stock
a. See table 1-2 on page 9 10.
b. Approximately 2/3 of the stocks are closely held or held by the
members of the originating family.
c. These controlling groups have a stake in upholding the status
quo by virtue of their wealth and strategic position (8).

FILTER 1: Corporate ownership

vii. Prime Objective, Diversification
a. The prime objective, with the help of the pressure from investors,
is profitability.
b. Many companies have ventured into other media outlets that
have growth potential.
viii. Dependence and Reliance on Government
a. The radio-TV companies and networks all require government
licenses and franchises and are thus potentially subject to
government control and harassment (13).
b. The media depends on the government for general support.
c. All businesses are interested in (13):
1. Business taxes
2. Interest rates
3. Labor policies
4. Enforcement and nonenforcement of antitrust laws

FILTER 2: Financial reliance on advertising

Advertisers essentially buy and pay for the
programs on TV, they are the "patrons".
They tend to choose culturally and politically
conservative programs.
Advertisers will want, more generally, to avoid
programs with serious complexities and
disturbing controversies that interfere with the
"buying mood.

FILTER 2: Financial reliance on advertising

GE and Westinghouse depend on the
government to subsidize their nuclear power and
military research and development, and to create
a favorable climate for their overseas sales (13).

FILTER 2: Financial reliance on advertising

The Advertising License to do Business
i. Revenues from Advertising
a. Without the support of advertising, newspapers would
cease to be economically viable.
b. Before advertising become prominent, the price of a
newspaper had to cover the costs of doing business (14).
c. With the growth of advertising, papers that attracted ads
could afford a copy price well below production costs (14).
d. Subsidy from advertising gives ad-based media a pricemarketing-quality edge over non ad-based media.
e. Attracting the affluent audience
1. [T]he mass media are interested in attracting
audiences with buying power, not audiences per se
(16).
ii. Political Discrimination
a. Working-class and radical mediasuffer from
discrimination of advertisers (16).

FILTER 2: Financial reliance on advertising

iii. Selective Programming
a. Advertisers selectively choose among programs that are
in line with their own principles.
b. With rare exceptions these are culturally and politically
conservative (17).
c. Deny sponsorship of critical programming
i. Large corporate advertisers on television will rarely
sponsor programs that engage in serious criticisms of
corporate activities, such as the problem of environmental
degradation, the workings of the military-industrial
complex, or corporate support of and benefits from Third
World tyrannies (17).

FILTER 3: Reliance on PR for information

The media have daily news needs, and thus
need a steady, reliable source of news
material.
Maintaining news reporters at all locations
where news may break is not financially
viable.
As a result, news organizations become
reliant on government PR.

FILTER 3: Reliance on PR for information

Sourcing Mass-Media News
i. Reliable Sources of Information
a. The media needs reliable and economically viable sources of
information.
b. Sources include:
1. The White House
2. Pentagon
3. State Department
4. Business corporations
5. Trade groups
c. Produce large volume of material
i. These bureaucracies turn out a large volume of material that
meets the demands of news organizations for reliable,
scheduled flows (19).
d. Merit
i. These sources also have the great merit of being
recognizable and credible by their status and prestige (19).

FILTER 3: Reliance on PR for information

U.S. Air Force public information outreach during 1979 1980: see page 20
140 newspapers, 690,000 copies per week
Airman magazine, monthly circulation 125,000
34 radio and 17 TV stations, primarily overseas
45,000 headquarters and unit news releases
615,000 hometown news releases
6,600 interviews with news media
3,200 news conferences
500 news media orientation flights
50 meetings with editorial boards
11,000 speeches
f. Only the corporate sector has the resources to produce public information and
propaganda on the scale of the Pentagon and other government bodies (21).
g. Large bureaucracies subsidize the media
1. Tax dollars -- Bureaucracies -- Media Subsidy
2. In the case of the Pentagon and the State Departments Office of Public
Diplomacy the citizenry pays to be propagandized in the interest of powerful
groups such as the military contractors and other sponsors of state terrorism
(23).

FILTER 3: Reliance on PR for information

ii. Influence and Coercion from Sources
a. The media will feel that need to mute criticisms of their sources.
b. Sources can use their power and prestige as a lever to deny critics access.

FILTER 4: Flak as a means of discipline

Negative responses to media content:
phone calls, letters, petitions, law suits,
speeches, bills before Congress
From individuals or groups, politicians,
government, business
When produced by individuals or groups
with large resources, it can be "both
uncomfortable and costly" (p. 26)
Advertisers are particularly concerned
about flak: link with filter 2

FILTER 4: Flak as a means of discipline

Flack and the Enforcers
i. Flack
a. Flak: negative responses to a media statement or program(26).
b. If it is produced on a large scale, it can be both uncomfortable and
costly to the media (27).
c. Organizations producing flack (27 28):
American Legal Foundation
Capital Legal Foundation
Media Institute
Center for Media and Public Affairs
Accuracy in the Media
d. Even though these organizations steadily attack the media, the
media treat them well (28).
e. Government as a major producer of flack
1. The government is a major producer of flack, regularly assailing,
threatening and correcting the media, trying to contain any deviations
from the established line (28).

FILTER 4: Flak as a means of discipline

Anticommunism as a Control Mechanism
i. Communism as the Ultimate Evil
a. Communism as the ultimate evil has always been the specter
haunting property owners, as it threatens the very root of their class
position and superior status (29).
b. This ideology helps mobilize the populace against an enemy, and
because the concept is fuzzy it can be used against anybody
advocating policies that threaten property interests or support with
Communist states and radicalism (29).
c. Support of fascism is justified as a lesser evil.
ii. The New Ideology
a. Democracy and the free market

FILTER 5: Anticommunism
Ideology against a common enemy helps
"mobilize the populace" (p. 29)
"Fuzzy" (p. 29) concept that can be used
against anyone threatening the interests of the
financial elite
Downfall of Communism left a gap (the
common enemy) that has now been replaced

EXAMPLES
Chomsky and Herman give multiple examples of
how news media content is in accordance with
their model's predictions. For example:
The almost totally unreported US chemical
warfare in Indochina during the 1960s (p. xxx)
Reporting of genocide by enemy states, but
not by the United States or U.S. client states.
(p. xix)

EXAMPLES
Anticommunism as a Control Mechanism
i. Communism as the Ultimate Evil
a. Communism as the ultimate evil has always been the
specter haunting property owners, as it threatens the very
root of their class position and superior status (29).
b. This ideology helps mobilize the populace against an
enemy, and because the concept is fuzzy it can be used
against anybody advocating policies that threaten property
interests or support with Communist states and radicalism
(29).
c. Support of fascism is justified as a lesser evil.
ii. The New Ideology
a. Democracy and the free market

AN INTERVIEW WITH CHOMSKY

WATCH A VIDEO OF CHOMSKY :
http://www.youtube.com/embed/GjENnyQupow?r
el=0&autoplay=1

APPLICATINO OF PROPAGANDA MODEL

DISCUSS KODAIKANAL WONT

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
TIMES OF
INDIA

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
DYNIK
BASHKAR
GROUP

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
DECCAN
CHRONICLE

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
HINDUSTAN
TIMES

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
INFORMATION
1 PRIVATE
LIMITED

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
JAGRAN

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
NDTV

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
NETWORK 18

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
NEWS
LAUNDRY

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
SUN
GROUP

INDIAN MEDIA
OWNERSHIP
ZEE NEWS

THANK
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