The Media as Conduit for Political Propaganda

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The Media as Conduit for Political Propaganda

According to the latest polls, 90% of Americans favor military retaliation for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Taking into consideration that all aggregate data is used for self-serving means, this number is still exceptionally large. The numbers are manufactured by propaganda vehicles, or rather the mainstream media. In a sort of Orwellian fashion, the media bombards the audience with images, voices, and memoirs of death, grief, and pain that pervert their way into public consciousness, creating a sort of “group-think.” In the essay “Propaganda, American-style,” Noam Chomsky writes:

In totalitarian societies, propaganda doesn’t really try to control your thoughts. It just gives you the party line. It says, ‘Here’s the official doctrine; don’t disobey and you won’t get in trouble…if you get out of line we’ll do something to you because we have force’ Democratic societies can’t work like that because the state is much more limited in its capacity to control behavior by force. Since the voice of the people is al...

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