Manufacturing Consent The Political Economy of the Mass Media By Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky; New York: Pantheon Books, 1988, 413 pp., $14.50.

Abstract

With the increased efficiency of mass communication technology there
has been enhanced sophistication in its varied utilization. Correspondingly,
a few fresher perspectives of mass media analysis have also appeared in recent
years.
Wiebe's (1975) The Segmented Society offered a sociological interpretation
of mass media contents which, according to him, aggravated the growing
isolation of individuals from their social organizations. Williams (1982) wrote
of serious dangers of the concentrated control of powerful media. In the same
year, Berger (1982) dealt with the three types of media analysis techniques
from the perspectives of a) structural-functionalist; b) serniological; and
c) Marxist. Berger sounded rather casual about the misuse of media by certain
individuals or groups. To him it seemed just a matter of varying perspectives
to find faults with each other's media systems in the tradition of inter-ideological
rivalry among researchers subscribing to the three different schools of thought.
Lowery and DeFleur (1983, 1988) identified the major milestone in the
evolution of communication research. In this process, they discovered several
instances of misuse of mass media and of media research for commercial
and political purposes. But their disapproval of such practices in the American
society was relatively mild and subdued. Martin's and Chaudhary's (1983 )
work seems to be the first comprehensive comparative investigation into mass
media systems currently operating in the world. They have compared and
contrasted modes of control, goals and roles of media in the Western,
Communist, and the Third World nations. In relative terms, Martin and
Chaudhary are right in asserting that in the Western world "press freedom
belongs primarily to the individual and secondarily to private groups." However,
one needs to look deeper to be able to measure the extent to which the individual
controls the Western media. It is this research concern that should lead us
to a fuller discussion of the book under review here.
Looking into the political economy of information in the global context,
Mowlana (1988) justifies the "fear and frustration of Third World nations."
He quotes Schiller (1981) to prove his point that the so-called 'free flow' of
information does not exist, for "There are 'selectors and controllers' who shift
and shape the messages that circulate in society." ...