Manufacturing Consent

Book by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman. It explores the role of traditional media in shaping public opinion by introducing the concept of the "propaganda model". Large media outlets, despite claims of independence, often serve the interests of powerful elites. Creation of news goes thru these filters to fit to the needs of the elites...

Ownership

Having a news organization involves a lot of capital - so only people who has that will be able to have a say. So content is influenced by profit driven motives.

"The dominant media firms are quite large businesses; they are controlled by very wealthy people or by managers who are subject to sharp constraints by owners and other market-profit-oriented forces; and they are closely interlocked, and have important common interests, with other major corporations, banks, and government. This is the first powerful filter that will affect news choice"

Advertising:

Advertisers “ buy and pay for the programs -they are the"patrons" who provide the media subsidy. As such, the media compete for their patronage, developing specialized staff to solicit advertisers and necessarily having to explain how their programs serve advertisers’ needs”

Sourcing

Selection of news sources and the reliance on official sources.

"This is also partly a matter of cost: taking information from sources that may be presumed credible reduces investigative expense, whereas material from sources that are not prima facie credible, or that will elicit criticism and threats, requires careful checking and costly research."

Flak

Flak refers to negative responses or criticism that media organizations can face from powerful entities or interest groups

"Flak from the powerful can be either direct or indirect. The direct would include letters or phone calls from the White House ..., or from the FCC to the television networks asking for documents used in putting together a program, or from irate officials of ad agencies or corporate sponsors to media officials asking for reply time or threatening retaliation. The powerful can also work on the media indirectly by complaining to their own constituencies (stockholders, employees) about the media, by generating institutional advertising that does the same, and by funding right-wing monitoring or think-tank operations designed to attack the media"

Fear Ideology

A govt. provided idea that serves as the Face of Evil. When the book was written, it was 'Anticommunism'. In the revised version, it was updated to 'War on Terror'

Engagement

This filter is not part of the book - but in our current age, this has become a essential factor for news organizations.