Manufacturing Consent

Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky argue that the American mass media act as ideological institutions that support established power, not through open coercion but through market forces, internalized assumptions and self-censorship. Their propaganda model describes five filters that shape the news, among them the size, ownership and profit motive of media companies, their dependence on advertising revenue and their reliance on dominant institutions as routine sources. Case studies test the model, including the treatment of worthy and unworthy victims, coverage of elections in the Third World and reporting on the U.S. wars in Indochina. The title borrows a phrase from Walter Lippmann, and the book won the Orwell Award in 1989.

In an interview, PentesterLab founder Louis Nyffenegger listed it among the books on his bedside table.