Thanks for signing up for this reading experiment. It’s great to have you here. Here are some updates about how to prepare for our third book club meeting 🎉
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
In this pathbreaking work, the authors show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order.
We’ll be meeting at 4 p.m. EST this Sunday, Oct. 4 to discuss Manufacturing Consent. I’m sending the Zoom invite to subscriber emails directly, so LMK if you haven’t received it by EOD.
If you have questions you want to ask the group, submit them here.
If you’re seeking more info about the authors, the book, or its contents, look no further. . .
In 2018, Al Jazeera did a TV special on the 30th anniversary of Manufacturing Consent, which offers some insight into its continued relevance today. As Noam expands upon in this 2019 Q&A, he thinks social media hasn’t changed his model at all.
Matt Taibbi is. . . wrong about a lot of things. But he’s also a big part of the convo around Manufacturing today. His 2019 book, Hate, Inc., is supposed to be something of an update on the OG propaganda model. Here’s Jacobin’s review of the new book, and a Q&A with Taibbi on the topic.
More context on the co-authors: Edward S. Herman died in 2017. Here’s his WaPo obit. Noam is 91. Here’s a really thorough overview of his contributions to linguistics and philosophy.
This is meta: the South China Morning Post, whose trials and tribulations under an authoritarian regime The Atlantic recently documented, ran a short column last year about a study showing the “US media manufacture consent on Hong Kong.”
You can reach me at elliepses@gmail.com or on Twitter @elliepses (DMs are open). Questions, comments, concerns, reading recommendations—I’ll take it all!
And, as always, the full History of Journalism reading List is available here.