Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

by Mark Achbar

Manufacturing Consent Noam Chomsky and the Media, the companion book to the award-winning film, charts the life of America's most famous dissident, from his boyhood days running his uncle's newsstand in Manhattan to his current role as outspoken social critic.

A complete transcript of the film is complemented by key excerpts from the writings, interviews and correspondence. Also included are exchanges between Chomsky and his critics, historical and biographical material, filmmakers' notes, a resource guide, more than 270 stills from the film and 18 "Philosopher All-Stars" Trading Cards!
Mark Achbar has applied a wide range of creative abilities and technical skills to over 50 films, videos, and books. He has worked as editor, researcher and production coordinator.

"A juicily subversive biographical/philosophical documentary bristling and buzzing with ideas."— Washington Post

"You will see the whole sweep of the most challenging critic in modern political thought."— Boston Globe

"One of our real geniuses, an excellent introduction."— Village Voice

"An intellectually challenging crash course in the man's cooly contentious analysis, laying out his thoughts in a package that is clever and accessible."— Los Angeles Times


The Man. Early Influences. Vietnam A Turning Point. On His Role. The Media. Thought Control in Democratic Societies. A Propaganda Model. The Gulf "War". A Case Study Cambodia & East Timor. Concision A Structural Constraint. "Sports Rap with Noam Chomsky." A Cabal of Anti-Conspiricists. Media in Media, Pennsylvania. Alternative Media. The Linguist. Basic Premises. Nim Chimpanzee. And the Elusive Connection to his Politics. The Social Order. On Education. Anarchism/Libertarian Socialism. Resistance & Critical Analysis. The Critics (Media-Based). William F. Buckley, Jr. "Firing Line". David Frum Journalist, Washington Post. Jeff Greenfield Producer, "Nightline". Karl E. Meyer Editorial Writer, The New York Times. Peter Worthington Editor, The Ottawa Sun. The Critics (Other Elites). Fritz Bolkestein Former Dutch Minister of Defense. Michel Foucault Philosopher. Yossi Olmert Tel Aviv University. John Silber

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, History, Biography, Linguistics, Theory

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Randall Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

john milton 1642's quote "they who have put out the people's eyes reproach them for their blindness" perfectly begins this great book which ties together quotes from a lot of chomsky books with issues of US media access and getting past propaganda to facts. quite a daunting project, this book and film set, a precursor to jeremy scahill's dirty wars set and oliver stone's untold history of the u.s. set, is a truly great one that tackles the rarest and no question bravest of topics - looking for real information on what our government is doing wrong (so we can make things better) that is not hidden by it and their two lapdog corporate/capitalist political parties. for americans who want to leave the best possible world to their children in this increasingly unstable world - they need to know fact from fiction, right from wrong - in short, they need a primer in intellectual self-defense - and THAT is this book. :)

i underlined a lot of stuff in this book - it's many topics are all so important - east timor, internalizing values, power can live with protest demonstrations but not sustaining increasing pressure joining with others, and the number one question you are not allowed to be asked in a poll - not "do you support our troops?" but "do you support our foreign policy?" this book is about how to recognize real news, find the real news, and why the real news is hard to find. our mainstream media, even in small doses, is the delivery system of most successful indoctrination. anyone not regularly checking FAIR, democracynow.org (it's TV show on Link and FreeSpeechTV is my favorite knowledge clearing house), common dreams, noam chomsky, glenn greenwald, chris hedges, michael ratner, william blum, derrick jensen and the other highly respected canaries in the media coal mine is at risk and will sadly be outside the loop wondering what went wrong when things fall apart for good. what a great book. this old book still in 2013 stimulates game changing conversation in all directions.

[Bradley Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to understand how "democracy" works and why we don't have it in the US, READ THIS BOOK. "Government is the shadow cast on society by big business." - John Dewey

[Asa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Propaganda Model exposed. One of the most important ideas of the 20th century. This is the book of the documentary, not the more detailed exposition with the same title and written with Edward Herman. Read them both. This is the lighter, easier version.

[Paul Westwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an unusual book because it was an almost direct transcript of the documentary, this meant that the sections of text at times seemed quite disjointed because they weren't supported by video imagery in the same way that they would be when set as voice-overs to the film. Also, I imagine that the documentary would move faster than it takes to read the same text so the relevance of the words would become apparent quicker when watching the documentary. This meant that there were times when I was reading something and couldn't see the relevance, or, it was referring to something that I hadn't heard of before and it would be a while before I got the answers I wanted. This isn't a criticism though, because the answers and explanations were always given, it's just that it often came after. I think this is because much of the dialogue came from interviews and news articles and it required extracts from a number of these sources to piece the whole story together; where a purposely written narrative could put the facts in a more logical order. Saying that, I think a lot of the time this was used as a deliberate narrative technique to raise questions in the reader's/viewer's mind before then addressing them. For example, there were a number of times where a negative article about Chomsky would be presented first and then a series of other pieces of dialogue would put the original piece in context. The book also fleshes out some sections of dialogue and articles which had been presented in the documentary in shorter form. This adds further detail to many of the ideas being discussed.
With regards the content, I don't know a huge amount about Chomsky's writing but I got the sense that this book covers all his major ideas on the subject of the media and it's influence over society, which is a very broad subject. Sometimes what he says sounds paranoid but his arguments are so well presented that I find it hard to disagree with him.
Overall, a very interesting book even if it did take much longer to read than I had thought it would.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profoundly impressive and provocative.

"Whether you are encouraged or not is a matter of personality, not of objective fact. In many ways things are a lot better. I think the cultural level of the country is much higher. Outside the educated classes, which are not changed, I think the moral and intellectual level of public discourse and public understanding has risen very considerably. I don't doubt that for a moment. And that's encouraging. If you want to be discouraged you can think about the glacial pace of it, the distance that yet has to be travelled before you can make a serious impact on policy. These are questions of mood, not of objective reality. I don't see much point in paying attention to them. Basically you take a kind of Pascal's wager if you don't do anything. Take the environment. If you want to give an objective analysis, you can give a pretty good argument that in a hundred years or two hundred years there's going to be nothing left but cockroaches. No matter what we do. That's quite possible. On the other hand you can try to do something about it, to change things. You've got two choices: Do nothing, in which case you can predict what's going to happen, or do something, in which case maybe you have a chance." -Noam Chomsky

[Mehrdad Qorbani]

Do you ever watch the news and ask yourself what the motivations are for a station sharing a particular story? Information should be informative, entertaining, and amusing, but is it always this way?
The mass media has a dark side to it that you may not have thought of before. In addition to entertaining us, these sources also promote certain social norms and behaviors. The government and other people who control the country are more in charge of what you see on the television than you might think.
These are the claims of Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. Chomsky argues that with an unequal division of wealth and power comes a wildly uneven distribution of stories that favors the upper class. Even though the media boasts objective, trustworthy reports, they are only a puppet of those who are really in charge.
Here are 3 of the most fascinating lessons from this book:

1. The media covers events in ways that favor the elite ruling class.
2. Because of the need for advertising revenue, news outlets focus on stories that will benefit their advertisers.
3. Experts give facts and information that are really just a form of the upper class controlling the media with their money.
Get ready to blow the lid open on the problems with mass media! Let’s begin!

Manufacturing Consent Summary

Lesson 1: The elite ruling class control what news the media covers.
At first glance into the ideas behind this book, you might say you’ve seen the media criticize someone who is rich or powerful. But did you stop to think that their condemnation could be the result of another person who is more rich and powerful paying them off?
As Qui-Gon Jinn put it in Star Wars Episode I, “there’s always a bigger fish.”
Publishers of news will always favor the elite in one way or another. If harshness against the rich, who govern what these outlets share, comes from someone outside the upper class, news outlets merely ignore and suppress it.
Take the Watergate scandal for example. Appearing to criticize Richard Nixon, the news was actually only a puppet of another ruling class-the Democrats. The events around the scandal were harmful to the Democrats, and their aim was to improve their image again.
At the same time, government agencies illegally spied on the small Socialist Workers Party. But the media didn’t make any effort to cover this act because it’s masters, the ruling class, didn’t care about the little guys.
Political and financial incentives that benefit the elite govern what the news shares, and what it keeps quiet. Many of these top earners and power-wielders are big business owners. Their large corporations contribute a lot of material for media outlets, who rely on these companies heavily. Thus, the wealthy and powerful have a tight grip on what the media talk about and what they snuff out.

Lesson 2: Advertiser interests govern what the news shares because of their payments to news stations.
To make it in the media world, you’ve got to pay for expensive reporters and publishing equipment. Add to this the competitive nature of the industry and you’ve got a recipe for easy disaster. That is unless you’ve got the cash to back up your station.
This is why advertisers play such a large part in the reporting and publishing business. But you can’t get sponsorship without making those advertisers happy. That means the coverage a news station provides is almost always biased. And who controls these advertisers? You guessed it, the rich and powerful.
Consider for a moment what happened to one TV network in the United States who lost their advertising funding. The station aired a documentary on the malpractice of some international companies in Third World countries. This upset their funder because it made big business look bad.
Some programs even get wiped from the schedule because it messes with the “buying mood” of potential customers. More serious shows, like documentaries and dramas, are shadowed by lighter entertainment like sit-coms to help drive sales.
The end interest of these corporation owners and other big-wigs is to maximize sales. Thus, they adjust their advertisement payments in ways that help them target wealthier audiences that will buy more products and make them more money.

Lesson 3: The upper class pays for experts to share their skewed findings on media outlets.
How often have you seen something to the effect of “experts say…” in the news or other media? I’ve often found myself quoting some of their statements. Now, I am a bit more leery of the accuracy of what “experts” tell us.
Not only are most experts just as good at predicting things as the rest of us, but they are also paid by the rich and powerful.

What may seem to be an authoritative and objective report of worldwide phenomenon is a mere bribery scandal meant to help the elite. Facts and information from these authorities is only a way for the dominant wealthy to propagate their opinions through the media.
Let’s look at the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II as an example of experts skewing reports to favor the elite. A Turkish national attempted the murder, but two hired “experts” put the blame on the Soviet Union instead. People ate up the story even though it was based on questionable evidence and easily invalidated. The expert’s credibility pushed a way of thinking that benefited the powerful.

Manufacturing Consent Review
I wanted to like Manufacturing Consent more than I actually did after reading it. The concept that the media skews information to the interests of the elite is intriguing, but the examples given are a bit too outdated for me. Still, it’s an important concept to be aware of!
Who would I recommend the Manufacturing Consent summary to?
The 35-year-old reporter who wonders if their employer is fair, the 63-year-old who is concerned about the validity of their news sources, and anyone who consumes mass media.

[Mark Creedon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant! It is not a new book but it explains how the power forces of the Western World use sophisticated propaganda to influence our thinking. Noam Chomsky demonstrates why simple propaganda in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia ultimately failed but the more complex version used in the West is unfortunately very effective. This book predates Donald Trump and fake news but it illustrates the media world upon which he provides his misinformation.

[Alejandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw the documentary I had no idea how the newspapers edited and what got to the public was nothing more then a headline in comparison. Obtain the book if you can find it. You are most likely to find the dvd at your independant videostore. Probably next to Supersize me.

[Crystal Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick look behind the scenes of America’s long-standing puppet show...starring all of us. This is a great Noam Chomsky starter kit for the ADD at heart. His work is guaranteed to leave you feeling naked, violated, and hungry for more.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the most eye opening books I had read at the age of 21 years, media manipulation and the beauty of it all.

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Manufacturing Consent“ ist das Begleitbuch zum preisgekrönten Dokumentarfilm „Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media“. Es zeichnet den Werdegang von Amerikas bekanntestem Dissidenten nach – von seiner Kindheit als Zeitungsjunge in Manhattan bis zu seiner späteren Rolle als unerschrockener Gesellschaftskritiker.
Der Band enthält das vollständige Transkript des Films, ergänzt durch zentrale Auszüge aus Chomskys Schriften, Interviews und Korrespondenzen. Darüber hinaus bietet er Briefwechsel zwischen Chomsky und seinen Kritikern, historisches und biografisches Material, kommentierende Notizen der Filmemacher, einen ausführlichen Ressourcenleitfaden, über 270 Standbilder aus dem Film sowie 18 „Philosopher All-Stars“-Sammelkarten.
Das Buch deckt ein breites thematisches Spektrum ab: das Propaganda-Modell, die Rolle der Medien in demokratischen Gesellschaften, den Vietnamkrieg, Anarchismus und libertären Sozialismus, Chomskys linguistische Grundlagenforschung sowie Gespräche mit prominenten Kritikern wie William F. Buckley Jr. und Michel Foucault.

[Jimmy Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very confusing book to read. It's a companion book to the award-winning film. If you saw the film, maybe it wouldn't be as confusing. While it contains notable quotes and ideas, they were few and far between.

The format is what's puzzling. The text is like reading two books at once with different fonts, sometimes three fonts. Whether it be a sidenote or a conversation, it was sometimes difficult to follow. Examples showed conversations being cut-off in mid-sentence. I wasn't sure what was the intent of the communication except that Chomsky's views are accepted. Personally, I found them too deep for some people to understand. Maybe that is the example.

The book is somewhat dated. The publication date is 1994. During the last 25 years, the media and technology vastly impacted the subject. There are some truths that change, but the intensity and volume have made the truth almost undecipherable.

[Ethan Monks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Has the effect of moving the furniture around in your brain.

Its major theory is that the elite class utilise the mass media to “manufacture” the “consent” of the general public. The media, in a relatively free and democratic society, is THE essential propaganda tool used by the elites to control what the public thinks. This is because in these “free” societies, the use of force is generally not available to them.

One may identify cantankerous debate within and between media outlets, but the reality is they all serve the opinions and needs of one or more elite factions.

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum — even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”
- Noam Chomsky

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in high school. It was assigned. I am very grateful for my education at The Beacon School 1999-2003... I write this exactly 24 years after the incident almost to the minute. I am so utterly grateful for my education. I was able to see war mongering and propaganda hours after the incident- fueling us up for hate and what I knew for certain would be at least a 7 or 8 year war with Afghanistan... It ended up being more than twice that... and dumb Americans were convinced it would be 5 WEEKS!!!

[Liz Nabankema · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its one of the most significant books in contemporary media and political thought. Though the Vietnam chapter is a touch tedious, the book is still amazing and must be read despite its slowing down toward the conclusion.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this back in the 80s. Fascinating expose of how the governments use the media to their own advantage and keep things hidden from the rest of us. The internet has changed a lot of the things talked about in this book but it is still an informative read.

[Vivekanand Mishra · Rating 5 out of 5]

A guiding light in today's age. Reminds me of something a read a while ago - I am wont to cross over even into the enemy's camp - not as a deserter, but as a scout.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

loyalty demands dissent! we don't have enough dissent in this country. we are all sheeps.

[Lola Petite · Rating 1 out of 5]

Any friend of Epstein is not worth my money

[Zachary Albaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

should be taught in every high school in the empire

[MARC L'ESPERANCE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, he always opens your thinking.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a a companion book to the film Manufacturing Consent. I read it back in the late 1990s and still have my copy. As I flip through it now I see all the places I highlighted what stood out for me in pink highlighter. Reading and reflecting on this book's content can only have added to my world view and distaste for so much of what the media spews out at us.

By response over the years has been to turn it off, preferring to sit in silence and do my own thinking.

Reading books like this one has given me permission to question and resist that which attempts to control my thinking.

I value that we have access to thinkers like Chomsky in books and in video.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating but difficult to read. Lots of material, I'll have to reread it as it's all spot-on.

After a 2nd (attempt at a) reread, I'm annoyed. The text drums its viewpoint singlemindedly, without really backing up its arguments unambiguously. The statement "US controls media" is fine, but how can you verify that, without using more (unreliable) media, non-US media, or (unknown, biased) 3rd-party information?

Four-star rating stands. Give it a shot, smarter people than I will get a lot out of this book; it's definitely an eye-opener in any case.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book of the film that explores the life and some of the work of noted intellectual Noam Chomsky. The film focuses on Chomsky’s comments with regard to media and how the dominant order employs it to distract the masses from important social issues. The book includes the entire verbal portion of the film (dialogues, interviews, lectures, voice-over narration) as well as still images from some of its scenes. As a bonus, inside the back cover is a set of philosopher trading cards, complete with portraits and statistics.

Acquired 1999
City Lights Book Shop, London, Ontario

[Armando Nieves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book.

[Hans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw the documentary. It covers a lot of Chomsky’s ideas.

[Eliecer Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street= existential threats.

[Joe Bernstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

A companion to the movie, both are excellent.

[Eben · Rating 5 out of 5]

great counter culture stuff here! i like the way chomsky's mind processes culture and government.

[Weavre]

Book not in Luzerne or Lackawanna system. Albright has DVD: DVD 302.234 MANU