In an increasingly polarized and sensationalized media world, it is hard to find reliable news sources that focus on issues that are important to the lives of regular people. Providing guidelines to help interpret modern media, Manufacturing Consent was written by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in 1988, and it is even more relevant today. It outlines five filters that news content must successfully pass so corporate editors can consider it as acceptable to be released to the public. These filters were created to analyze traditional media platforms such as print media (newspapers, magazines, etc.), radio, and TV, but they are just as applicable to today’s new online media marketplace full of clickbait, algorithms, and culture war distractions.

Filter 1 – Ownership

     The editorial decisions of any media organization must align with the interests of the owner. This will often involve political allegiances and/or economic desires, and will determine both the selection of topics covered (and critically those deliberately omitted), as well as the chosen framing of such topics. The power of the owners of major tech platforms in the modern world is also greatly influential in the way that algorithms are actively set to highlight or undermine topics to suit the company’s interests.

Filter 2 – Advertising

     Advertisers also have a strong effect on content as they can decide (or change) where they advertise based on whether media organizations follow their desired worldview. It is advertising money that determines whether media is financially successful or not, and it holds great power in influencing media content to attract and shape their preferred market (audience).

Filter 3 – Media

     Elites Moneyed media will often interview, quote, and/or refer to the interests of wealthy and powerful people or institutions. Often the views of most citizens who are affected by these people’s opinions are much less represented. This creates a distorted representation of what is seen as important, and how it affects different people.

Filter 4 – Flak

     In this context, flak means criticism from many different people. The filters of mainstream news are designed to ignore, ridicule, and/or attack any negative feedback toward their corporate-friendly viewpoints. The institutional advantages of big media do whatever is required to diminish popular opinions that do not correspond to their interests.

Filter 5 – Common Enemy

     Fear has been used historically to control the masses and increase trust and support for the leadership class. This is still true today. Immigration, terrorism, drugs, crime, and so on are all weaponized to create unnatural levels of concern in society that lead people into relying on established power structures to keep them safe from these highly sensationalized “risks.”

     This is a very brief and simple overview of some of the requirements and techniques of big media organizations to maintain the interests of their owners and advertisers that often have shared interests with companies across other major sectors, such as banking, housing, engineering, etc. Online media is still definitely affected by these same filters, yet it is harder to keep it fully contained compared to more traditional media. Younger generations are perhaps also less reliant on older media, and live predominantly online. Thus, they can help in breaking through these controlling filters in ways that were previously far more difficult.

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