dmariel, Herman and Chomsky

In my CMC 350 International Media class last year, we studied Herman and Chomsky in regard to the propaganda model. This quote seems to sum up the purpose of the propaganda model: “The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. 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 institutional structures of the larger society”. I find it interesting that Herman and Chomsky state the first purpose of the propaganda model as amusement. I have always associated amusement with laughter and jokes. I definitely believe that this type of wording has a deeper purpose.
I have recently learned about a news station program, Al Jazeera (headquartered in Qatar), that functions very differently than any news program that we have in the United States. Their slogan is “the opinion and the counter opinion”. They try to appeal to as many viewers as possible and to encourage numerous opinions. Unlike the US news, AlJazeera gives background information and more truthful documentation about what is going on in the world and why. On the other hand, the US sticks to ‘filtering’ news and giving cover stories. AlJazeera is an example of what Herman and Chomsky refer to as a medium that actively “competes, periodically attack and expose corporate and governmental malfeasance, and aggressively portray themselves as spokesmen for free speech and the general community interest”. What I always found astonishing about our relationship, or should I say lack of relationship, to AlJazeera is the US’s resistance to allowing it to be broadcast within the states. Although, very hypocritically, the US has designed a news station called Al Hurra that they broadcast in the middle east. This news station is a lame attempt at programming and it carries over an obvious propaganda model into the middle east. I believe that the US feels extremely threatened by AlJazeera, seemingly because they tell the truth. American news stations do everything to distract the average American citizen from seeking anything other than what news and information that they are given.