FloRida, Herman/Chomsky

Mass media must be able to inform, entertain, and persuade using common beliefs, values, and signs that people will identify with. The way this happens is through a propaganda model. Herman and Chomsky explain a propaganda model that includes, “(1) the size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth, and profit orientation of the dominant mass-media firms; (2) advertising as the primary income source of the mass media; (3) the reliance of the media on information provided by government, business, and ‘experts’ funded and approved by these primary sources and agents of power; (4) ‘flak’ as a means of disciplining the media; and (5) ‘anticommunism’ as a national religion and control mechanism” (257-258). We have been learning a lot about ideology in class lately. According to Althusser, ideologies cause us to play mental games based on the systems we interact with. Ideology is not really real but cause us to do real things. This can specifically relate to dominant media firms that are controlled by wealth and are subject to constraints. Mass media corporations are so overpowering that, “…Twenty nine 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” (259). These twenty nine firms control ideology. Herman and Chomsky states that, “The greater profitability of the media in a deregulated environment has also led to an increase in takeovers and takeover threats, with even giants like CBS and Time, Inc., directly attacked or threatened” (262). Hebdige says that ideology saturates our everyday lives without us even realizing and television is being the main form of communication to the masses. “Many older newspaper-based media companies, fearful of the power of television and its effects on advertising revenue, moved as rapidly as they could into broadcasting and cable TV. Time, Inc., also, made a major diversification move into cable TV, which now accounts for more than half its profits” (265).