ABSTRACT

Propaganda in the Information Age is a collaborative volume which updates Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model for the twenty-first-century media landscape and makes the case for the continuing relevance of their original ideas. It includes an exclusive interview with Noam Chomsky himself.

2018 marks 30 years since the publication of Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s ground-breaking book Manufacturing Consent, which lifted the veil over how the mass media operate. The book’s model presented five filters which all potentially newsworthy events must pass through before they reach our TV screens, smartphones or newspapers. In Propaganda in the Information Age, many of the world’s leading media scholars, analysts and journalists use this model to explore the modern media world, covering some of the most pressing contemporary topics such as fake news, Cambridge Analytica, the Syrian Civil War and Russiagate. The collection also acknowledges that in an increasingly globalized world, our media is increasingly globalized as well, with chapters exploring both Indian and African media.

For students of Media Studies, Journalism, Communication and Sociology, Propaganda in the Information Age offers a fascinating introduction to the propaganda model and how it can be applied to our understanding not only of how media functions in corporate America, but across the world in the twenty-first century.

chapter |11 pages

Introduction

Propaganda in the information age
ByAlan MacLeod

chapter 1|11 pages

Still manufacturing consent

An interview with Noam Chomsky
ByAlan MacLeod, Noam Chomsky

chapter 2|22 pages

A propaganda model for the TWENTY-FIRST century

Structure-agency dynamics and the intersection of class, gender and race
ByFlorian Zollmann

chapter 3|20 pages

Assessing the strength of the five filters today

ByAlan MacLeod

chapter 4|19 pages

Fake news, Russian bots and Putin’s puppets

ByAlan MacLeod

chapter 5|20 pages

Deflective source propaganda

A Syrian case study
ByOliver Boyd-Barrett

chapter 6|11 pages

Expanding the propaganda model to the entertainment industry

An interview with Matthew Alford
ByAlan MacLeod, Matthew Alford

chapter 7|13 pages

Still compromising news

Obfuscation and evasion as dominant filters in Indian media’s coverage of the IL&FS financial scandal
ByTabassum Ruhi Khan

chapter 8|13 pages

International public relations and the propaganda model

A critical analysis of Bollywood blockbusters
ByAzmat Rasul

chapter 9|13 pages

Still manufacturing consent in the digital era

Disinformation, “fake news” and propaganda in the 2017 elections in Kenya
ByJacinta Mwende Maweu

chapter 10|10 pages

Working inside the racket

An insider’s perspective to the elite media
ByMatt Kennard

chapter |5 pages

Conclusion

New media, same old rules
ByAlan MacLeod