Introduction
The propaganda model is a conceptual model in political economy advanced by Edward S.
Herman and Noam Chomsky to explain how propaganda and systemic biases function in
corporate mass media.
The word propaganda was first use in missionary activities of the Catholic church. In 1622 Pope
Gregory XV created in Rome, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.
Propaganda and related concepts
Connotations of the term propaganda
The word propaganda itself, as used in recent centuries, apparently derives from the title and work
of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for Propagation of the Faith), an
organization of Roman Catholic cardinals founded in 1622 to carry on missionary work. To many
Roman Catholics the word may therefore have, at least in missionary or ecclesiastical terms, a
highly respectable connotation. But even to these persons, and certainly to many others, the term
is often a pejorative one tending to connote such things as the discredited atrocity stories and
deceptively stated war aims of World Wars I and II, the operations of the Nazis’ Ministry of
Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, and the broken campaign promises of a thousand
politicians.
To informed students of the history of communism, the term propaganda has yet another
connotation, associated with the term agitation. The two terms were first used by the Russian
theorist of Marxism Georgy Plekhanov and later elaborated upon by Vladimir Ilich Lenin in a
pamphlet What Is to Be Done? (1902), in which he defined “propaganda” as the reasoned use
of historical and scientific arguments to indoctrinate the educated and enlightened (the attentive
and informed publics, in the language of today’s social sciences); he defined “agitation” as
the use of slogans, parables, and half-truths to exploit the grievances of the uneducated and the
unreasonable. Since he regarded both strategies as absolutely essential to political victory, he
combined them in the term agitprop. Every unit of historical communist parties had an agitprop
section, and to the communist the use of propaganda in Lenin’s sense was commendable and
honest. Thus, a standard Soviet manual for teachers of social sciences was entitled Propagandistu
politekonomii (For the Propagandist of Political Economy), and a pocket-sized booklet issued
weekly to suggest timely slogans and brief arguments to be used in speeches and conversations
among the masses was called Bloknot agitatora (The Agitator’s Notebook).
The Propaganda model of media control was introduced by Edward. S. Herman and Noam
Chomsky in their book ‘Manufacturing Consent – The Political Economy of the Mass
Media’. This theory states how propaganda works in a mass media. The model tries to
understand how the population is manipulated, and how the social, economic, political attitudes
are fashioned in the minds of people through propaganda. Herman and Chomsky mostly
concentrated on American population and media for their research but this theory is universally
applicable.
Definition of Propaganda
propaganda can be define as a means of disseminatimg of information, facts, arguments, rumours,
half-truths, or lies, to influence public opinion.
Propaganda is a more or less systematic effort to manipulate other people’s beliefs, attitudes, or
actions by means of symbols (words, gestures, banners, monuments, music, clothing, insignia,
hairstyles, designs on coins and postage stamps, and so forth).
The Functions of propaganda theory
The model seeks to explain how populations are manipulated and how consent for economic,
social, and political policies, both foreign and domestic, is "manufactured" in the public mind due
to this propaganda.
Theory
Definition of Theory
the branch of a science or art that deals with its principles or methods, as distinguished from its
practice.
Functions of Theory
1. Theory provides concepts to name
2. what we observe and to explain about relationships between concepts.
3. Theory allows us to explain what we see and to figure out how to bring about change. 4. Theory
is a tool that enables us to identify a problem and to plan a means for altering the situation.
In their book Manufacturing Consent, Herman and Chomsky says “A propaganda model focuses
on this inequality of wealth and power and its multilevel effects on mass-media interests and
choices. It traces the routes by which money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print,
marginalize dissent, and allow the government and dominant private interests to get their
messages across to the public”.
According to the theory media operates as a business which sells its products (readers and
subscribers) to other business entities that do their advertisements in media, rather than performing
the function of disseminating news for the public. Here the news is being misshaped and reformed
from its original form. Herman and Chomsky call the factors which misshape news as filters. The
news is being filtered by each of these factors before they reaches its audience or general public.
The five filters are
Ownership
The major media organizations are in the hands of a few elites. The major news channels,
newspapers and other mass media instruments are a part of large corporation and conglomerations.
The information presented to the public will be varying as per the interests of these organizations.
As a part of maximizing profit they sacrifice some news objectives. The extensive financial
interests of these organizations may endanger the quality of news. It is common around the world
that the medias in the hands of government being puppets.
Example: Corporate organization who owns media never publishes the financial details, which
may endanger them.
Funding
The advertisements play the major role of funding in mass media. If advertisements were not
funding mass media, then price of the newspapers may include cost of its production and also
it’s applicable for other mass media like Television, Radio and electronic media. So it is
common that the media filters the news, in favor of their advertisement providers. The ethics of
the mass media is often modified for their existence by media.
Example: A corporate organization may threaten the media saying that they will withdraw
advertising contract if the media publishes any news which damage the reputation of the
organization.
Source
Even the biggest media organizations cannot afford to have reporters and camera persons where
ever the news breaks. There will be some sources for news and the media is supposed to protect
these sources and in the same time there will be some powerful sources which tend to change the
policies of media. For availing a continuous flow of news, the media take suitable actions in favor
of source. The relationships have to be maintained with these sources and it is common that the
news are published keeping the ‘source’ in mind.
Example: The spokesperson of a prime minister or president is considered as a powerful source of
news. For making sure of a proper flow of news the organizations keeps the sources delighted by
fine-tuning the news.
Flaks
Flaks refer to the negative responses to the statement or programme published or broadcasted. If
the flaks are produced in a large scale it is destructive to the media. The media will always have an
eye for the negative responses. It will have a through look on the materials and news before it
publishes or broadcasts some news about a publically loved figure. As a filter it will try to avoid
the news items which may bring sorts of negative responses.
Example: Most of the media never publishes news projecting negative image of religious leaders
without strong evidence. Because it may harm the reputation of media organization among the
public.
Anti-communism
As far as the American corporations and elite groups are concerned the communism was an
ultimate evil because it took their wealth and power from them, it threatened their superior
positions and high class. So the elites who are the owners of media adopted a policy to bring
censorship to the articles and news which talks about the good side of communism. The American
elite even feared the word communal. This is the fifth filter in propaganda model suggested by
Herman and Chomsky.
Example: The news which says about the communal living of workers was never allowed to
publish in America. Because they were afraid of a revolt by the workers if such articles and news
are disseminated.
REFERENCE
Britannica Online. 30 Jan 2002.
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Boston: MIT Press, 1994.
Oxford English Dictionary Online. 28 Jan 2001.
Williams, Raymond. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1976.
