Mongoose, Herman and Chomsky

The article “A Propaganda Model” points out some very eye opening facts about how our media is constructed. I think we all knew that it is just a few rich people that control what we see and hear, but seeing the statistics has to make one think a little more about this. These stats also point out how funny it is that media tries to portray itself as unbiased and fair coverage; Herman and Chomsky point out that media “are able to convince themselves that they choose and interpret the news ‘’objectively’ (258)” even though every one involved would scoff at this notion. This article points out many reasons why the elitists are able to continue to dominate the media market and keep alternative media from becoming any sort of a threat; although there are several reasons listed the one that really stands out to me is money. Those who are in power will continue to rule and continue to have their ideas spread throughout the masses; or as our friend Marx would agree with (not say) those who have the gold, rule. These authors would probably get along quite well with Horkmeier and Adorno who brought up the idea that our culture is infected with ‘sameness’; they were referring to many aspects of media, advertising etc. and this article elaborates on the sameness which they were referring to. Because all of our media corporations are owned by a small handful of individuals we see and hear the same things no matter which national station we chose to watch / listen to; we see the same commercials coast to coast and have the same new stories, with the same spin, on all of the major news channels. This is also a good example of Althusser’s notion of ISA’s; because these media corporations have so much power, and they know it, they are able to control what information is spread to the public and keep us from hearing about certain stories if they so chose. The fact that so many do not realize that the media is an ideological force reinforces his idea that those who are in ideology, do not realize it; media controls the world and so few of us are able to realize it.