Propaganda

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky cover the concept of propaganda in their article “A Propaganda Model”. Propaganda is a system usually perpetuated through the mass media. Propaganda is hard to identify, especially in a private media based society, but that does not mean it is not present. When I hear the word propaganda my mind immediately thinks of its more extreme forms. The term propaganda was first introduced to me in context of World War 2 and the Nazi regime. Hitler and his followers used propaganda to instill fear, control, cultivate hate, and essentially fuel the Holocaust. However, this is a specific example. Propaganda, a more broad sense, is made to benefit the bourgeoisie. The reasoning behind this is because propaganda is mass produced by the media, and the media is owned by very few, elite, the bourgeoisie. The lack of diversity in ownership of media outlets allows for there to be little diversity in the views and ideas the media portrays. Herman and Chomsky refer to this concept as centralization. Centralization is not seen as a positive state because it gives the few the power over many, which can be dangerous. Herman and Chomsky identify integration of media, loosing of rules limiting media concentration, and cross ownership as the main contributors to centralization of media. Disney for example, not only does Disney have theme parks, books, board games, movies, and merchandise, but they also own Nickelodeon, ABC, and Pixar. In addition, most of the public is unaware that Disney also owns those other media outlets, so when they believe they are watching an entirely different corporation, they are mistaken. This allows Disney to broadcast their values or ideas through several media outlets with the public being unaware that the ideas come from the same source. This lack of knowledge allows the values or ideas to seem natural and become a part of the dominate ideology of the culture. This idea of ownership is only the first filter that information must pass through before the public can become aware of it, but it is a powerful filter.