FloRida, 11/8

Chomsky’s ideas of propaganda are what really stuck with me this week. Propaganda’s purpose serves to influence the public through different mass media outlets. We think we have a choice in expressing our opinions but it is merely an illusion because propaganda controls us. This goes along with Chomsky’s idea of “opine and recline.” We, as a society, are just spectators with news and media being thrown at us while we just sit there and take. The Ruling Class (Marx Theory’s) is the one who controls what propaganda, media, and news is being displayed. Business corporations are often the ones who decide what is news worthy, therefore business is inputting ideas into the news. I always sit in front of the television and wonder if there is a systematic way for why certain ads are paired up with certain television shows, which is obviously extremely clear. Chomsky states that, “advertisers will want, more generally, to avoid programs with serious complexities and disturbing controversies that interfere with the ‘buying mood.’” This corresponds to Marx because he believes that social being determines conciseness. In my visual rhetoric class, we learned that advertisers create ads for people to look at and NOT question. Looking deeper into an ad can cause conflict, which is the exact opposite of what the advertisers want us to do. This is what propaganda is used for, to get rid of the conflict without people really realizing it. According to Chomsky, “In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfill this role requires systematic propaganda.”Just like Baudrillard, the media are part of the event; they are part of the problem. Mass media uses flak in order to get people’s attention no matter how it is done. Putting a spin on things always gets the ball rolling. (No pun intended)