We live in a society. Pretty obvious, right? We eat, we sleep, and we wake up, we shop, we talk, and we learn, all in this society. Of course, our day to day actions don’t seem to affect much more than our own selves. We live everyday thinking we’re nothing more than a speck of life on this vast and immense planet. But as insignificant as all our lives may seem, the truth is they are not. Every word, every action, and every step we take has an impact that you may not ever realize. These seemingly normal acts can be good, like complimenting your local barista or trying your friend’s homemade food. However, they also have the potential to perpetuate danger. “Now what is that danger?” is a question you may ask. This is where manufacturing consent comes in. But what is the meaning of manufacturing consent? And how does that show the dangers we could perpetuate in our supposedly everyday actions? Well, let’s find out.
The Meaning of Manufacturing Consent
Let’s get down a basic definition of manufacturing consent. Manufacturing consent is the use of propagandized media to manipulate the public into consenting to the unjust actions of the government. Essentially, they distort the media to justify the immoral actions of the government. This can be done by painting the victims as “terroristic” or “dictatorship”, making them seem evil. This allows the crimes of the perpetrators seem okay. It can be done by making the perpetrating state seem benevolent in their actions, acting as if what they are doing is benefiting their target. However, most of the time those actions never help.
At the end of the day, the public consumes this media and believes it. As a result, no matter what their government does, the public will do nothing to stop it. In this way, the state “manufactures” the consent of the people for the actions it is perpetuating. However, to really get to the meaning of manufacturing consent, we need to understand where the term came from.
Manufacturing Consent (the Book)
The theory of manufacturing consent arose from the book, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman (here is where you can read it free online).
The Propaganda Model
This book was an analysis of propaganda in mass media, specifically perpetrated by big corporations in capitalist America that use that media to promote established power. Their analysis was based on a specific propaganda model that is governed by these 5 filters:
#1 – Size, ownership, and profit orientation
Large media corporations dominate the media and hence hold the majority of the profit. These corporations are run by the rich and its only desire is to get even richer than it already is.
They’re extreme profit-motivated system will lead them to only produce media that will bring them profit. Remember; news that helps the people is, basically any anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist news, not profitable. Hence, large media corporations will produce products that support the capitalistic system that grows their profits, even if that means condoning its atrocities. And the media that doesn’t support the American capitalistic system? Well, that media is most definitely not produced by dominant media corporations, so it would not be prevalent in the media. Instead, that media will be drowned out by the establishment-supporting media of the dominant media corporations.
Take this example: In 1983, 90% of the media was controlled by 50 companies. In 2012? 90% of the media is controlled by 6 giant media corporations. This consolidation of media concentrates media ownership into the hands of those rich corporations. Then, media can be better controlled so that only specific forms of media can be perpetuated in the media.
#2 – Advertisement as a primary form of income
The production of media costs money, but if you add advertisers into the mix, the cost of said production is lower. Again, the media that makes the most profit is the media that supports the current system and establishment, and that is the media advertisers will endorse. Advertisement does not support the people; it only cares about capital. It only cares about what will make it more money, and what will uphold a system that will continue funneling profit to it. So, if advertising is the primary form of income, the primary focus of a media corporation, then propaganda in favor of the established system will be perpetuated through that media.
#3 – Reliance on “trusted sources”
The media being pushed out is often backed by “trusted” government sources. These sources present themselves as factual, ones that only give information based in truth. But the real truth is that these sources are not in fact factual. They are not based in truth. They are governmentally controlled propaganda sources that spread information that solely support the established system. However, you will feel that you can’t criticize the media because of the supposed authority and factuality that supports it.
#4 – Flak
Flak is essentially backlash against the media, but not the type you would think would actually help. Instead, this backlash is specific and controlled. It was created so that the media stays uniform, perpetuating the same message that supports the status quo. How does this “flak” manifest in our lives? Well, cancel culture is a huge example of this. Cancel culture forces out media that deviates from the media norm, whether from internet discourse or even legal lawsuits.
The humorous part is that the far-right constantly critcizes cancel culture. Their claim is that canceled culture pushed out far-right supportive media. However, the media that “flak” targets is not rightwing media that these people seem to think it does; in fact, it is the rightwing that it specifically supports. Flak targets actual leftwing media and ideologies, forcing it out of the public view. This controlled opposition that is supposedly fighting rightwing media is not coming from the voices of leftists—it is simply promoting palatable rightwing media that’ll keep the public docile.
#4 – Anti-communism
Finally is the anti-communist fear that is consistently perpetuated by this media, and honestly the one that best captures the meaning of manufacturing consent. Since the rise of the Soviet Union and the consequent popularity socialist and communist ideology, the US government began vehemently spreading anti-communist propaganda. This frenzied attack was known as the Red Scare, and anyone who didn’t blindly believe American Red Scare propaganda was persecuted as a communist.
But why was this such a big deal? Why was communism such a threat? Well, the US government realized that if their people learn of systems other than capitalism, systems that prioritize the people over money, they might revolt. They might destabilize the system that American corporations and elites curated to continue funneling wealth to them while simultaneously keeping the people in check. So, Red Scare propaganda was used to misinform the American population on communism and socialism, painting these political ideologies as dystopian evils instead of what they truly are.
However, the Red Scare did not end back then. That propaganda is deeply instilled in our American lives. Everything in our adulation, lives, and importantly, media has been so anti-communist that we perceive anti-communism as a norm. That is the depth of the impact propagandized US media has on American lives. Even years after, the people are still entirely uneducated on communism and socialism. The only thing that does is support the status quo, the system that has so blatantly exploited the people, because the people are unaware of the ways to oppose it.
The Propaganda Model Into Manufacturing Consent
So, now we’ve understood the propaganda model. To understand the meaning of manufacturing consent, we now need to know how these “filters” of propaganda are used to manufacture consent.
These filters create propagandized media that is hard for the public to discern as propaganda. They create a media environment that doesn’t allow the people to recognize its propagandized nature unless they go out of their way to research it. Hence, the public does not see this media as propaganda and instead they take it for fact.
And through years and years of the same propagandized media being pushed out, the state manipulates the public into consenting to their egregious actions, entirely because the public does not know the full story at all. They only believe what they are told.
How We Manufacture Consent
So, the real important part of knowing the meaning of manufacturing consent is knowing how each and every one of us do it. The truth is, everytime we regurgitate what we’ve read from the media, we might just be manufacturing consent for the unjust actions of the government. In the US, this goes for Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, China, and so many more countries that the US specifically targets with its media. So, rethink what you think you know about any of these countries, especially if it’s heavily negative. Trust me, when the US government says something is “evil”, it more likely just opposes its imperial rule.
What Does This Mean for Teens?
Okay, I’ve just said a lot of words, a lot of theory, but what does this mean for us as teens? Well, teenagers are some of the most subject to propaganda because we consume the most media. According to this survey, the average Gen Z spends 6.6 hours daily consuming media. That’s more than a fourth of our days on the screen, and more than a fourth of our days that we are susceptible to media propaganda.
On top of that, we are the coming generation. We are the people who will have to live in this coming future, so of course the US would want us to remain propagandized against leftist ideas. But that also makes it all the more important for us to self-educate on leftism. We have to do our own research on issues around the globe. We have to forget what we have been told and put back together our opinions ourselves. It cannot be us who are continuing that cycle of manufacturing consent. But most importantly, we have to lose any trust in the state of our current nation and gain trust in the people that surround us. After all, we are the ones living in that future, so we must be the ones to change it.
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