DBA123, Herman and Chomsky

I found Herman and Chomsky’s A Propaganda Model to the first of our readings I could relate many ideas proposed in our CMC major to. I found that the five filters were very applicable to media outlets today. Herman and Chomsky look at the history of advertising and make some very valid points. The second filter, The Advertising License to do Business, I found to be the most interesting.

“Before advertising became prominent, the price of a newspaper had to cover the costs of doing business. With the growth of advertising, papers that attracted ads could afford a copy price well below production costs. This put papers lacking in advertising at a serious disadvantage…A market share and advertising edge on the part of one paper or television station will give it additional revenue to compete more effectively- promote more aggressively, buy more stable features and programs- and the disadvantaged rival must add expenses it cannot afford to try to stem the cumulative process of dwindling market share,” (266-267).

The reading then goes on to explain why grassroots groups and other smaller companies that support ideas that don’t steer in the same direction as the dominant media outlets get little recognition of existence. It takes major movements to grow from being in a local paper to getting national attention. I feel as if our CMC major is focusing us on exactly this cause. In most of classes so far we study media intently, seeing how minority groups get portrayed, what type of news gets the most intention, how to improve the way media affects people. Herman and Chomsky make some very interesting arguments on how breaking media stereotypes is a very difficult task. I believe by being aware of these filters helps us come up with more creative ways to draw attention to what is usually not being looked at too closely.