Manufacturing Consent

The Political Economy of Mass Media

Dr. Ifra Iftikhar

Lecture 6
Political Economy
Political economy is the interplay between economics
and politics.
The political, economic and cultural factors that affect
the production and distribution of wealth.
Media content in case of Mass media.
 Ideology
● In relation to “culture”:
○ A body of ideas articulated by a group of people which inform practices.
○ Practices mask the ideas behind them so that they seem natural, inevitable,
universal
● Glossary:
○ [The] ideas embedded in all our social institutions (legal, educational,
economic, military, etc) [that] create a dominant commonsense
understanding of reality that supports the status quo.
✔Consent

Acceptance or approval of what is planned or done by

another. Permission, approval, or agreement;
compliance.
 Political & economic factors that shape the news

Political and economic systems of the society in

which the media operate:
● Political and economic status of the country
● Dominant cultural and social values
● Cultural/national alignments or conflicts
● Dominant ideologies
 Political economic influences on the media

● Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky argued in the

1988 that there were five political economic filters
through which news passed before it was presented
in the mainstream media.
● These filters are known as “Propaganda Model”.
Propaganda Model
PROPAGANDA MODEL STRUCTURE
 Ownership
○ The Media is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small
number of private companies, owned by wealthy individuals.
○ The pressures of stockholders, directors and bankers are also
powerful forces affecting the content of these companies' media
content.
○ Thus "market-profit-oriented forces" .
 Advertising

• Interests of advertisers come before reporting the

news

• The news itself is nothing more than "filler" to get

privileged readers to see the advertisements
 Sources

• The media have daily news needs, and thus need a

steady, reliable source of news material.
• Maintaining news reporters at all locations where
news may break is not financially viable.
• As a result, news organizations become reliant on
government PR.
 Flak

• Negative responses to media content: phone calls,

letters, petitions, law suits, speeches, bills before
Parliament.
• From individuals or groups, politicians, government,
business
• When produced by individuals or groups with large
resources, it can be "both uncomfortable and
costly“.
 Anti-Communism/Anti-Terrorism

• "Fuzzy" concept that can be used against anyone

threatening the interests of the financial elite.

• Downfall of Communism left a gap (the common

enemy) that has now been replaced by Terrorism.