The Fact
In Manufacturing Consent, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky proposed a “propaganda model” in which mass-media output is shaped by recurring institutional filters rather than requiring direct state censorship or a secret conspiracy among journalists. The original model identified five filters: ownership/profit orientation, advertising, dependence on powerful information sources, “flak” or organized negative pressure, and anticommunism as the dominant ideological filter of its Cold War setting.
What This Means
“Manufacturing consent” is an institutional theory about how incentives and information channels can systematically narrow what becomes prominent, credible, or discussable in mass media—even when individual journalists believe they are acting independently.
Sources
- Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. See Chomsky archive discussion of the model: https://chomsky.info/1992____02/