Theory that mass media systematically produces public support for elite institutional interests
Manufacturing Consent is the title of a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky that presents their "propaganda model" of mass media. The central thesis is that media in democratic societies function as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general population — not to inform, but to generate support for the policies and interests of dominant institutions: government, military, and corporations.
The propaganda model identifies five "filters" that shape media content: (1) ownership concentration among wealthy corporations, (2) advertising as the primary revenue source creating pressure to favor advertisers' interests, (3) reliance on government and corporate sources as "expert" voices, (4) "flak" — organized negative responses to critical coverage that disciplines journalists, and (5) ideological framework that marginalizes dissenting perspectives.
The model was dismissed as conspiratorial when published but has gained credibility as media ownership has further concentrated, the advertising model has evolved into surveillance capitalism, and numerous cases of media coordination with government messaging have been documented. Operation Mockingbird confirmed that the CIA actively cultivated media relationships. More recently, the uncritical media repetition of intelligence community claims about Iraqi WMDs demonstrated how the propaganda model operates in practice.
