Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda / Edition 2

by Noam Chomsky

Overview

Noam Chomsky’s backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control begins by asserting two models of democracy—one in which the public actively participates, and one in which the public is manipulated and controlled. According to Chomsky, "propaganda is to democracy as the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state," and the mass media is the primary vehicle for delivering propaganda in the United States. From an examination of how Woodrow Wilson’s Creel Commission "succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population," to Bush Sr.'s war on Iraq, Chomsky examines how the mass media and public relations industries have been used as propaganda to generate public support for going to war. Chomsky further touches on how the modern public relations industry has been influenced by Walter Lippmann’s theory of "spectator democracy," in which the public is seen as a "bewildered herd" that needs to be directed, not empowered; and how the public relations industry in the United States focuses on "controlling the public mind," and not on informing it. Media Control is an invaluable primer on the secret workings of disinformation in democratic societies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781583225363
Publisher:	Seven Stories Press
Publication date:	09/03/2002
Series:	Open Media Series: Open Media Book
Edition description:	2ND Edition
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	525,493
Product dimensions:	5.02(w) x 6.99(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

NOAM CHOMSKY is known throughout the world for his political and philosophical writings as well as for his groundbreaking linguistics work. He has taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1955 and remains one of America's most uncompromising voices of dissent.

Table of Contents

	Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda	9
	Early History of Propaganda	11
	Spectator Democracy	14
	Public Relations	22
	Engineering Opinion	30
	Representation As Reality	35
	Dissident Culture	38
	Parade of Enemies	42
	Selective Perception	46
	The Gulf War	53
	The Journalist From Mars	69
	About the Author	101
	About Seven Stories Press	101
	About Open Media Pamphlets and Books	102