Critical Concepts Dictionary

I first heard of Noam Chomsky in a linguistics class, in which we discussed his idea of universal grammar. I was very intrigued by the idea, as I interpreted his search for the unifying characteristics of all languages as being a quest for universal truth. I was pleasantly surprised to run into Chomsky again while watching manufactured consent. In the documentary Chomsky discusses his concept of the propaganda model, in which public opinion is manipulated by control of media. Chomsky points out that while propaganda is often associated with fascism and despotism, in fact it is a far more useful tool for democratic governments, in which the ruling power relies more on subversive manipulation than direct military threat in order to control the will of the people. Another interesting point that Chomsky brings up in the movie is that propaganda functions in part by the exclusion, or filtering out, of other ideas within the media. In this way, the illusion of freedom to choose content remains, while the exclusion of contrasting/competing ideas goes unnoticed.