Chomsky's 5 Filters

According to American linguist and political activist, Noam Chomsky, media operate through 5 filters: ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak and the common enemy.

Watch:

Chomsky's 5 Filters


Write some notes about each of the five filters:

Listen

Do you agree with the points below?

In what order are the points made in the video?

The owners of the media corporations make money by attracting audiences and then selling advertisers the opportunity to engage those audiences.

In the end the owners of the media care more about money than the public good.

To have influence in the media you have to have friends in high places.

The media likes to have a villain – someone everyone agrees is dangerous.

If you say anything that challenges the convenient story, you’ll find yourself being isolated.

In the end the owners of the media care more about money than the public good.

The owners of the media corporations make money by attracting audiences and then selling advertisers the opportunity to engage those audiences.

To have influence in the media you have to have friends in high places.

If you say anything that challenges the convenient story, you’ll find yourself being isolated.

The media likes to have a villain – someone everyone agrees is dangerous.

1. ownership




2. advertising




3.the media elite




4. flak




5. the common enemy

Discuss

1. What does it mean to manufacture the public’s consent? 

2. Is there a difference between consent and consensus?

Vocab

What do these phrases mean?

to stray away (from) 

the powers that be 

discrediting 

boogie man 

to corral 

take second place 

complicity 

media scoops 

to fall in line 

through the lens 

co-authored 

to act as a check 

conglomerates 

end game 

in bed with each other 

whistle blowers 

In groups try to remember what order these phrases were used.

Listen once more, and check the order.


Script

1 OWNERSHIP
The first filter has to do with ownership. Mass media firms are big corporations. Often, they are part of even bigger conglomerates. Their end game? Profit. And so it’s in their interests to push for whatever guarantees that profit. Naturally, critical journalism must take second place to the needs and interests of the corporation.

2 ADVERTISINGThe second filter exposes the real role of advertising. Media costs a lot more than consumers will ever pay. So who fills the gap? Advertisers. And what are the advertisers paying for? Audiences. And so it isn’t so much that the media are selling you a product — their output. They are also selling advertisers a product — YOU.”

3 THE MEDIA ELITE
The establishment manages the media through the third filter. Journalism cannot be a check on power because the very system encourages complicity. Governments, corporations, big institutions know how to play the media game. They know how to influence the news narrative. They feed media scoops, official accounts, interviews with the ‘experts’. They make themselves crucial to the process of journalism. So, those in power and those who report on them are in bed with each other.

4 FLAK 

If you want to challenge power, you’ll be pushed to the margins. When the media – journalists, whistleblowers, sources – stray away from the consensus, they get ‘flak’. This is the fourth filter. When the story is inconvenient for the powers that be, you’ll see the flak machine in action discrediting sources, trashing stories and diverting the conversation.

5 THE COMMON ENEMY
To manufacture consent, you need an enemy — a target. That common enemy is the fifth filter. Communism. Terrorists. Immigrants. A common enemy, a bogeyman to fear, helps corral public opinion.

Vocab review