ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by posing the research question of the strength of the five filters in 2018. Are the five filters Herman and Chomsky identified in 1988 still relevant? If so, which ones? And have the filters’ strengths increased or decreased since Manufacturing Consent was published? It finds that most, if not all, of the factors affecting media output Herman and Chomsky identified shape news production more forcefully than previously, due to the changing nature of the profession, where journalists are under more structural pressure and have less creative freedom than ever before. For example, elite media ownership has greatly concentrated, while the reliance on “official sources” has increased, as has the ability to organize and generate serious flak, due to the growth of the Internet and the increased ease with which journalists are accessible.
