A Response to "Manufacturing Consent".

In the film “Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media,” Professor Chomsky criticizes American mass media conglomerates, accusing them of engineering a very narrow pool of viewpoints broadcasted from which the public may develop its opinions. Chomsky proposes that approximately 80% of the public is driven to apathy or diversion from important issues by a number of techniques used by “agenda-setting” media to control peoples’ understanding of issues, including topic selection, emphasis, issue framing, information filtering, and the bounding of debate. Interestingly enough, many of these “Propaganda Model” techniques proposed by Chomsky are employed by the makers of the film “Manufacturing Consent” to great effect.

The techniques I found most profoundly effective were emphasis, issue framing, and information filtering, since their use is so applicable to the documentary genre. One clip of the film in particular, in which Chomsky is seen debating another official about his claims concerning the manufacture of consent, employs information filtering and emphasis to portray Chomsky in the undisputable winning light. By displaying “rounds” of debate in which Chomsky appears to be intellectually overpowering the other man (not to mention the fact that the camera angles used to film Chomsky are much more sympathetic and flattering) and a newspaper article declaring his victory, it appears to audiences that he has trumped the debate. Chomsky is made out to be the sympathetic protagonist, and his cause is thus one in which we believe. This is also an example of how the issue of media and control is being framed from his point of view, another technique mentioned. The audience is not, however, given information about the rounds of debate that are skipped in the documentary, or about news headlines that were less favorable. Was Chomsky truly a perfect debater in this situation, and did all of the press who covered it actually agree as well? Without critical analysis of this clip, audiences can only assume thus.