Herman & Chomsky's Propaganda Model - 30 Years Later

In 1988 when Chomsky & Herman's Propaganda model came out, it was met with varying degrees of acceptance. Most proponents agreed that it gave a thorough outline of how mass media news is tainted; However, others began questioning Chomsky and Herman's credentials and saw many flaws with the proposed model. Now that 30 years have passed since it's creation, I will revisit the model and evaluate its effectiveness in the modern media.

To begin my evaluation, we need a brief introduction to the Propaganda Model.  This model introduces 5 active filters that help demonstrate the effects of inequality on: wealth and power, and on mass media.  The proposed 5 filters are: 

1. Size, ownership, and profit orientation of the mass media
2. The advertising license to do business
3. Sourcing mass-media news
4. Flak and the Enforcers
5. Anticommunism as a control mechanism

Pictured Above is Chomsky & Herman's Five Filters of a Propaganda Model via Comunicologos

The first filter, Size and Profit orientation, proves to be very relevant today. We can clearly see the hierarchy of companies in: newspapers, television stations, and even book publishers. Our book publishers are dwindling, our newspapers are declining, and this is all due to companies buying out and controlling the smaller companies. It's obvious that bigger and more successful companies attract more affluent investors, so this filter remains very active in today's society.

The second filter, advertising, is at the forefront of many businesses. Newspapers and television stations are especially interested in their Client Audience Profile (CAP), which brings in more money for the company. Although this advertising filter is still active today, it has definitely changed since Chomsky & Herman first devised this filter. I believe advertising as: flyers, Newspapers, billboards, etc is not as effective today because of the internet. Social media platforms have began tracking our browsing history and interests and then sell our data to big companies. These data analytic companies can then tailor ads specifically to our personal interests based on what we want in very current time. This is why I believe a case can be made that the advertising filter is still active, but doesn't play as critical of a role.

The fifth filter, Ideology/Anti-communism, is rampant with the crime and wars that seem to have no end. Although communism is not a very prominent term in today's society, It seems that "terrorism" and "war on terrorism" have simply replaced anti-communism. Most tragic news stories seem quick to blame "terrorists" for everything from car crashes, to building explosions, to shootings, etc. This terrorism scare has families, teachers, politicians, etc fearful because of the coverage portrayed by the media. Once the media labels a tragic event as being investigated as an "act of terrorism" the fear evoked in the general population is horrifying because of the sheer power of "fear".

The aforementioned filters are, what I believe to be, the most persuasive filters within this model. Because of these filters overall relevance in today's society, I believe it is clear how Chomsky & Herman's Propaganda Model has managed to stay persuasive over the course of 30 years.