Manufacturing Consent

Manufacturing Consent discussed the idea of how mass media is no longer serves the general public good but is manipulated by the wealthy and the government. In his propaganda model, Chomsky sees that politicians constantly manipulate the news or information to only further gain but not to serve the interest which leads us to the problem of biased news and information. Chomsky provides a dissection of media and goes as far as to say that part of our biased media is due to ourselves. As a public, we sometimes choose to be what Chomsky chalks up to as laziness and laziness causes us to accept what we are being told. We don't go out and search for answers we just accept them. Chomsky gives way to the idea that we as a public, sometimes prefer this biased news and therefore we accept it as the truth and not as altered mass media.

This documentary was an example of the same propaganda model that is discussed by Chomsky. From the beginning of the film to the end, I saw displays of Chomsky's own propaganda model. The documentary opens with a man on television inside a television. This was an example of how we are drawn to things such as mass media, and the larger television creates the feel of importance and draws a person in to believe what they are being told. I did find it interesting that many of the clips in the documentary were cropped and in essence showed its own propaganda model. The clips could just show what the documentary maker wanted, and in a way just controlled our news and understanding of Chomsky's message.