Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, narrated by John Pruden | 2017; originally published 1988 | Tantor Media | Audiobook $20
In this pathbreaking work, now with a new introduction, the authors show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order.
This is one of the more recent and perhaps unusual picks for my list for Classics Club. I quite like reading nonfiction and I wanted to include plenty of it on my list, but I also wanted to branch out a little and try new things; I don’t typically read books on contemporary culture and politics, so I hoped to find a title that could fit that genre but also be considered a “classic”. Manufacturing Consent seemed to fit the bill.
The book is incredibly well-organized, with each point being clearly described and then illustrated with case studies and supporting evidence. The authors don’t just say, “This is our opinion of how mass media works,”; they offer multiple examples that illustrate the pervasiveness of what they call the Propaganda Model.
I won’t say the idea was totally a shock — propaganda has a very long history, and the concept of mass media as a purveyor of it is no longer new, obviously — but I have still been accustomed to thinking of the free press and media more generally as an independent Fourth Estate, a more-often-than-not reliable arbiter of genuine news and champion of transparency in the pursuit of truth. I often think of myself as a skeptic, and as someone who can usually (though certainly not always!) detect bullshit and half-truths. But after learning of example after example after example of cases when assumed-trustworthy journalists or publications unapologetically spun stories to fit whatever economic or political agenda would best suit them, I know that I will have to make an effort to be even more skeptical in the future.
That said, I have to be honest; I would not really recommend this as an audiobook specifically unless you have much more patience than do I, or at least a more intense preexisting interest in the subject. I typically listen to audiobooks on my commute to and from work, and I found that after my initial attention to the topic wore off I started to get alternately bored and frustrated while listening to this book. Sometimes I felt a bit confused and wished I could pause to look something up online — an impossibility while driving — and other times I felt like the narrative had become so dry or repetitive that I could have dozed off — another impossibility while driving, and always a sign that it’s time to turn the radio on instead.
Ultimately, I would only really recommend this book to readers who want a deeper understanding of how propaganda works, or perhaps to people who are interested in mid-to-late 20th century American history.
Links:
- Official website of Noam Chomsky
- Obituary of Edward S. Herman in the University of Pennsylvania Almanac
Publication information: Chomsky, Noam and Herman, Edward S. Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media. Connecticut: Tantor Media, 2017. Audiobook.
Source: Public library, via Hoopla.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.
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