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Noam Chomsky

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Media Control, Second Edition: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda (Open Media Series) Paperback – September 3, 2002

by Noam Chomsky (Author)

4.5 976 ratings

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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.

Print length

112 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Seven Stories Press
Publication date

September 3, 2002
Dimensions

5.02 x 0.35 x 6.99 inches
ISBN-10

1583225366
ISBN-13

978-1583225363
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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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Seven Stories Press; 2nd ed. edition (September 3, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 112 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1583225366
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1583225363
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.02 x 0.35 x 6.99 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #115,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #37 in Propaganda & Political Psychology
- #216 in Censorship & Politics
- #263 in Communication & Media Studies

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Noam Chomsky

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Avram Noam Chomsky (/ˈnoʊm ˈtʃɒmski/; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, logician, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes described as "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy, and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He has spent more than half a century at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is Institute Professor Emeritus, and is the author of over 100 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/culturaargentina [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Jim

Succinct, Hits the Nail on the Head

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2024

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I've read and listened to most of Noam Chomsky's work. I found this 1991 (with a 2003 speech added to the 2nd edition) book to be an eye opener simply because it is such a succinct overview of how our (spectator) democracy works.
The original part of the book is 65 small pages. I read it twice. It is particularly relevant in an election year.
The 2nd edition speech is playful narrative of how a Martian journalist would view human civilization and report back to the home planet. The big picture for the folks back on the home planet.
Highly recommended!

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2024

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Great book to read, added to my book collection

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2007

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If it were any other author, I would say, "show me your sources." But it's Chomsky, and he's already written enough books showing his sources. This one isn't meant to be a footnoted volume of case-and-point. It's just a nice high-level essay highlighting the absurdity of the rhetoric of our times. I do have one complaint though. I wish this focused a little bit more on the media than the government. Chomsky blends the two together and speaks of one as if it's the other. Hmmmm...on second thought, maybe he did that on purpose.

Anyway, a light read for Chomsky fans and a nice intro for those unfamiliar with his work.

6 people found this helpful

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K. Johnson

We See Media Control Everyday

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2010

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"The Essence of Society is engineering Consent." --Edward Bernays, adviser to Woodrow Wilson.

"Media Control" is both brief and informative. The great thing about thi book is you can apply the concepts to instances in the past and present. The omniscient and omnipotent media. It dictates what most of us discuss at the dinner table, or over a cup of coffee or beer. The topics at hand are spoon-fed to us, and often our very own opinions are spoon-fed to us also. Often, we get a narrow pre-defined "choice" of 2 positions to take on these complicated topics. Often the two positions are oversimplified and more nuanced than actually opposing one another. These issues and circumstances are not that simple. But the media constructs and defines the parameters, simplifies and narrows them, and dishes them out to the public. This is the narrow field of play the mainstream media hands to us. We sheepishly accept it, often without being aware of it nor critically thinking about it. Our opinions on these chosen topics are often limited.

"Media Control" is applicable for the past, present, and future. The rules basically stay the same.

"Not every item of news should be published. Rather must those who control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose."
-Joseph Goebbels

"It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion." -Joseph Goebbels

Recent real-life instances of "Media Control" include Freedom Fries, pre-emptive attacks, war-mongering, PNAC, and the Neo-con fad that has infiltrated the US government via appointments, and influenced the US public in recent years: A high percentage of the American public according to polling data is not interested in attacking and overthrowing governments in foreign countries. Therefore, the public has to be influenced, excited, and engineered to endorse such endeavors. Fear is the best motivator to influence public opinion.

One example cited among many was the American public's perception and belief that Iraq would invade the United States. Iraqi armed forces landing on the shores of New Jersey or California? Imagine that. The Americans had to "fight them [the Sunnis) on their soil or they'd have to fight them on our soil." 7/10 American polled believe Iraq & Hussein were involved in 9-11 during the media onslaught that began with Judith Miller of the NY Times and the GWB administration. The Iraq conflict is near (perhaps) the end of US troop involvement, but it's a great illustraion of Media Control.

Another example from this book is former Panamanian ally, Manuel Noriega: a small time operator that dealt drugs in cooperation with the US the government, until he fell out of favor. Noriega was made larger than life. Made into a caricature of a dangerous thug. A threat. The USA removed him and restored power to the 8% white minority elite, having U.S. military officers in positions throughout the government.

Before this in the 1980s, there was the Emergency Threat to the United States: Latin American, Lessor Developed Countries, with ill-trained, and ill-equipped armies.

Ironically, the Creel Commission (CPI) is noted in "Media Control," and appriately so. The Creel Commission was a propaganda campaign to get the USA involved in WWI. It's widely considered by historians to be the center of the creation of the Public Relations (PR) industry.

The media is all-powerful. The thoughts most think, the tenets most believed in, and the words people say, are the words of others.

Highly recommended.

10 people found this helpful

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R. Schwartz

The Media - Selected Lies For the Public

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2005

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Speaking for myself, I get sick when I hear "CNN, The Most Trusted News," and watch Fox and every other mind-melted American media. I have to admit, I also get nauseated (literally) in just the sight of G.W. Bush or any of his administration attempting to tell the "truth." And what's even more disturbing are the supporter's; Blind and angry fighters with bias moral slants and empty slogans. On the other hand, PBS and Comedy Central are refreshing alternative exceptions to all of these deceptions.

Chomsky relates two types of democracy - one where the majority of people are politically active participants, heard, listened and considered. The other, which is what we have, is a vanguard or specialized class of representatives that do the voicing for everyone - the only participation of the public during their elections. And this is what has been both in Lenin's and U.S. liberal's idea; that of a specialized vanguard political and business class endorsed to protect the bewildered public who simply can't think for themselves. In this, modern U.S. propaganda had its beginning with Woodrow Wilson's Creel Commission and later Red Scare.

While former tactics used have been the Creel Commission and the Red Scare, attacks are still used unions and all political organizations with the separating and isolating of people; distracting them with consumerism, TV sitcoms and the Superbowl - to name only a few. Also the use of catchy and empty phrases as "Do you support the," and "Are you for or against." This is used along with many superficial forms of entertainment, gossip columns, sporting events and many other diversions. The bottom line is a One party system, a One business system, with two divisions of the same party - the Democrats and Republicans.

While these distractions and attacks on unions and political organizations have been very successful, they have not broken up the Churches, which act as the few places left for organization and political speeches against propaganda. An example is the recognition that war is wrong, while the government calls those against the Vietnam War part of a Vietnam syndrome, weak and sickly persons.

You name it - the Middle East, Central America, National terrorism - it's all been lied upon by our media and governmental official history, including the number killed in Vietnam, declaring less than a million Vietnamese, while other sources reveal millions. What do we think when other countries and groups lie about the amount of people murdered in the Holocaust?

It was only until the 1960's that the culture awakened unlike before. Even in highly prejudice and opinionated parts of the country, open talks can now be given. Where formerly there was both the lack of understanding and opposition, now there is still opposition but with much more understanding and at least some type of semi-organizational national movements despite all the media propaganda.

In our recent times with unemployment raised, lower wages, loss of health care affordability, dwindling social security, and much more poverty than before, the sitcoms, consumerism and the Superbowl are not enough. The tactics needed are to continually create new enemies to fight, new terror to control and general fear within the public; as in Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden, Castro, Quadhafi, drug traffickers, Arabs - all with our magnificent military force that wipes out these supposed tyrannies - in reality they are weak third world armies - all acting as distractions and diversions from the real truth; U.S. imperialism and abuse of labor and natural resources by the few powerful and wealthy. Cuba is likely to be next. In an effort to gain control over labor and natural resources and prevent economic independence, the strategy is to first provoke them. And then when they act under defense, they are set-up under the lie of offence as reported by the media, demanding that we defend and brilliantly crush them under patriotic morals and values. "God Bless America." Now we can all relax with a sigh of relief now that this terrible dictatorial tyranny has been eliminated and decent human rights and values have been restored.

9. While the media widely publicized the jail and torture of the former Cuban prisoner, Armando Valladares, and the U.S. both commending him for his courage and then appointing him as a representative of the UN human rights commission, a much more detailed, mountainous evidence of signed affidavits of human rights commission members in El Salvador imprisoned and tortured by the U.S., and acquired by Hebert Anaya were entirely ignored by the media. Only one small blurb mentioned. And when finally released from prison, he was quietly assassinated by U.S. backed security forces.

People who were polled responded against countries that occupy others illegally and perform human rights abuses. And yet all over the globe, both the U.S. and U.S. backed forces do just that, an example being the U.S. backed invasion, torture and killings of Indonesia to those in East Timor, killing over 200,000, while the media remains silent. And while Israel occupies Lebanon illegally against UN resolution 425, with U.S. backing, killing over 20,000 in Beirut, hospitals and vital centers, there is no media coverage.

Over the years, the media refused to report to the public the critical voices of the Iraqi democrats around the world since they condemned the U.S. friendly relations with Saddam Hussein. Only after Saddam became the enemy were their voices given any coverage. But no sooner did they voice their antiwar sentiments and opinion against imperialistic maneuvers; they were again completely ignored by the media. You can only read about them in some of the German and British press. What does this say of our democracy?

Chomsky gives the reasons U.S. gave for the Gulf War; Aggressors can not be rewarded and must be reversed by violence. And yet the U.S. does this all the time and no one questions their aggressions, as in their 20 years of quiet diplomacy (no attack) of South Africa's killings, 1.5 million in just the Bush-Reagan years. Again no media coverage, a hallmark sign of a totalitarian and bias culture.

While two-thirds of Americans polled favored peace negotiations with Iraq, the media continued to drill the government's view of no diplomacy. Meanwhile Iraq had offered total withdrawal, and again no coverage. Any who thought of negotiations were made to feel like oddballs since the media shows that no one thinks this way. And no Democrat dared speak up either.

While the U.S. blocks sanctions against Israel for her defying the UN in illegally occupying Lebanon since 1978, it hypocritically employs sanctions against Cuba and Iraq. And these have worked, weakening Iraq tremendously. Negotiations are offered by Iraq, but Bush refuses for the same economic exploitative reasons in a small country torn by a war with Iran. And now suddenly it is a dangerous power that threatens the entire world with lies about stockpiles of chemical weapons and WMD. The same exact tactics were used only a year earlier on Nicaragua's Manual Noriega, deceptively elevated to a large and dangerous drug trafficking threat to the world. But he had to be smashed, killing hundreds, maybe thousands of people, and restoring a vicious police state. History repeats itself.

It's all about whether we want a pseudo democracy of representatives and servitude or a free democracy of active citizen participation. These are our choices.

34 people found this helpful

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Aaron Rudroff

Jesus Noam just goes on and on and on

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2022

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Dr Chomsky writes about the complicity of the media ignoring stories that were not in perceived American interest. I have no reason to doubt their validity. However in typical fashion, Dr. Chomsky’s revelations are to the point of “bitching,” and at some point actually agreed that the media did the right thing,

One person found this helpful

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Pete

Noam Chomsky: Media Control

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2024

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Great book like all Chomsky's writings!

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Enrique

Panfleto

Reviewed in Spain on July 19, 2021

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Sin entrar en consideraciones acerca del pensamiento político del autor, el libro me parece un refrito.

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Sandip Bhadra

Short history of Corporate media

Reviewed in India on June 27, 2021

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No explanation is needed about the writer. This is a short book which starts from the genesis of corporate media. It explains how the propaganda is made by the media to control the common people. This is truly a great book.

2 people found this helpful

HENDERSON Xavier

contemporain et déniaisant

Reviewed in France on June 4, 2020

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Avec les media sociaux, tout et n'importe quoi et qui a voix. Du plus bête au plus intelligent comme si tous étaient comparables. Noam Chomsky nous aide à comprendre les dangers de cet aplanissement prélude d'un asservissement par la pensée de masse et des chefs de meute

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TS

Must read for citizen members

Reviewed in Australia on September 14, 2021

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The first half is a short lecture by Chomsky, and the narration is the recording of the lecture. You can take Chomsky's lecture on walking or the bus!

I must admit that I have been pretty naive regarding media control and modern propaganda. The Covid panic made me question the media narratives. Some media/communication experts have mentioned "propaganda," and I read this book.

It was fascinating, and I was surprised that modern propaganda is not hidden from its history but officially recorded. I have realized that I myself have been affected by propaganda.

Though I don't know how we can overcome this weakness of democracy, I think all citizen members must read this.

Daffy Bibliophile

Managing Democracy

Reviewed in Canada on August 2, 2012

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A quick read which gives you an introduction to Chomsky's ideas and his view of Western, particularly American, society. Chomsky starts out by stating that democracy as we practice it is the art of keeping the ignorant masses in their place. This is not done with brown-shirted thugs wielding truncheons but through public relations, through propaganda, through consumerism and all of the useless trinkets that distract consumers.

Chomsky introduces propaganda in democracies by discussing the Committee on Public Information (aka the Creel Committee) which was set up by President Wilson with the mandate to whip up patriotic, anti-German feelings in the American public in order to allow the USA to enter the First World War on the side of the Allies. It was a brilliant example of early propaganda in a Western nation. Both Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays, early practitioners of the art of propaganda were a part of this committee of deceit. It's worth doing your own research on these two, as they played a central role in developing modern propaganda/public relations techniques. As Chomsky points out, in a modern liberal democracy you can't use the truncheon to control the masses, you have to use propaganda - convince, distract, but don't kick.

Chomsky goes on to give other more recent examples of how the herd has been manipulated to accept war when the leaders deem it necessary. The herd, that great mass of humans, can't be trusted to know what's best, not even for itself, so it must be guided, or misguided, if you like. It wold have been nice if Chomsky has mentioned Gustave Le Bon and his seminal work on crowd behaviour ( The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind ) but I guess given the shortness of this work, the omission is understandable.

Read this little book, it contains big ideas, ideas that people in all Western nations should be thinking about if we want to live in a truly democratic, law abiding society.

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