Manufacturing Consent

Rejecting the common perception of the press as cantankerous, obstinate and ubiquitous in its search for truth, this book sets out to show that an underlying elite consensus largely structures all facets of the news. The authors dissect the way in which the marketplace and the economics of publishing shape the news, and how issues are framed and topics chosen. They contrast what they contend are double standards behind accounts of free elections, a free press and governmental repression between Nicaragua and El Salvador; between the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the American invasion of Vietnam; and between the genocide in Cambodia under a pro-American government and genocide under Pol Pot. The result is an account of the propagandist nature of the communications media, and of how they can be read, and their function interpreted, in a new way.