Manufacturing Consent Chomsky Analysis

Comparing Chomsky and Bernays ideas on public consent

Edward Bernays writing The Annals of The American Academy of Political Sciences¬, as well as Noam Chomsky’s book Manufacturing consent both outline the prevalence and purpose of public consent persuasion in American society and the influence it has on our world. Planned consent is a means of communication, agreement and problem solving, but on the other side of the spectrum it is a means of forcing propaganda onto a large audience and swaying the public’s opinions in the interest of money and power. It is acknowledged by both authors that both Integris as well as evil intentions are fulfilled through the manipulation of the public and planned consent. The ideas presented also show us that

Chomsky points out that the manufacturing of consent is so systematically planned, that the very people reporting story’s and indoctrinating the public may not even be aware of their bias. Bernays name for this concept is ‘Engineering of consent’. As the public slowly becomes more distant from live situations and first-hand experiences of world news events, the media, and leaders communications are relied on and taken by the public most often at face value. As Bernays describes the “highly organized mechanical web”, the people at the top creating the messages forced on the public are our leaders, big news companies, and those with a lot of money and an agenda they wish to see realized. It is not enough to merely advertise the subject matter or communicate propaganda to the public. Without a complicated plan of playing the minds of viewers, all efforts will likely go to waste. “Words, sounds, and pictures accomplish little unless they are the tools of a soundly thought out plan and carefully organized methods.” (Bernays) Also stated, is that to influence the public it is important that those with the impact must first understand what the majority supports, and what their opinions on the subject matter are so the topics are approached in a way that will not shut out the public from said

Though he does acknowledge the potential pitfalls of its misuse, he stresses the importance it has on solving issues as a society, and moving forward to address important issues: “Today it is impossible to overestimate the importance of engineering consent (…) when used for social purposes, it is amongst our most valuable contributions to the efficient functioning of modern society” (Bernays) Chomsky focuses more of the corruption in the people who create and portray these messages, stating that their motives are for money, and control of opinion to benefit commercial interest. Chomsky states that the main filters to the news media include owner wealth, and an objective geared toward profit of private interests. “A propaganda model focuses on the inequality of wealth and power (…) It traces the routes by which money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print (…) and allow the government and private interests to get their messages across to the public.” (Chomsky). Chomsky suggests that news passes through so many ‘filters’ that by the time it reaches the viewer all messages are tailored to support each other and serve the beneficiaries who created the original agenda. Both authors recognize that the information presented is a part of a complex network of ideas made to support each other and sway the publics beliefs, but clearly the two see different motives