ABSTRACT
There is a good deal of work on the propaganda model but almost none of it is from a journalist’s perspective. Instead, nearly all is written by academics and is generally theoretical. In this chapter, Matt Kennard takes us through his personal experience of working in the journalism industry under the propaganda model, from how journalists are indoctrinated to think and act “the right way” (i.e. obedient, conformist) at elite journalism schools, how editorial and time and space pressures force journalists to cover stories in a certain fashion, resulting in a groupthink among the journalist profession – a conservative hegemony of thought in the newsroom – and discusses how those who think otherwise are weeded out slowly. Kennard argues that there is always a presupposition of American and Western benevolence around the world in foreign reporting. He also discusses his attempts to test the propaganda model from the inside; how editors removed problematic sentences that did not pass through the five filters and how journalists learn to accept the presuppositions of their bosses and advertisers.
