Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman

“Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media” by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky is a groundbreaking work that critiques the role of mass media in shaping public perception and reinforcing power structures. The book introduces the “propaganda model,” arguing that media organizations, driven by corporate interests and elite agendas, systematically manipulate information to serve the interests of powerful societal groups. Through case studies, Herman and Chomsky demonstrate how media distorts, omits, and selectively reports news, thereby manufacturing public consent for government and corporate policies.