Reddit mentions of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media

I encourage everyone to read this book. Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky he explains detail about how the media is changing everything.

Someone made a sub this time around to document the widespread absurdity:

/r/BernieBlindness

It's hard to not conclude the media aren't a corrupt monolith.

EDIT:

Noam Chomsky concluded this long ago:
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media

Noam Chomsky​ Lecture with introduction by Bernie Sanders​

They had the story from an NSA informant (actually a FISA court lawyer). They were told by the Bush administration that "the terrorists would win" if they published it, so they buried it.

http://www.npr.org/2014/06/05/319233332/new-york-times-editor-losing-snowden-scoop-really-painful

If you want a better idea of the timeline on it, Frontline covered it pretty well.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/united-states-of-secrets/

If you want a better idea why the New York Times would cow-tow to the White House like that, Manufacturing Consent does a pretty good job of explaining the forces at play here (access, flack, anti-terror hysteria).

In no specific order: The Dictator's Handbook: presents a realist perspective on international and intra-national politics, specifically it presents a real-world analysis of politics through the lens of Selectorate Theory.

Something from Chomsky, I'd say Manufacturing Consent or Understanding Power or both. Chomsky has written about 40 books so it's impossible to keep up with him and you may end up disagreeing on substantial points, but I think he's probably the most important to read because he situates his political analysis outside the invisible constraints of American political culture, and American political culture tends to be naive about the goals and methods of government and other institutions.

Watch this CGP Grey video and consider how it applies to political parties, political discourse, and political activism. Afterwards you should either read the meme wikipedia page or Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene.

Looking back I notice all my recommendations circle around studying politics itself as a phenomena, I don't know if that's what you meant but you might enjoy it. If you're more wondering which political stances you should take, decide that by which policies have empirical evidence of working and base your decisions on how robust you think the evidence is.

That was right out of Manufacturing Consent last night, if you ask me.

Awesome article.

For more, here's a decent documentary based on Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent:

>It's basically an institutional analysis of the major media, what we call a propaganda model[...] they do this in all sorts of ways: by selection of topics, by distribution of concerns, by emphasis and framing of issues, by filtering of information, by bounding of debate within certain limits. They determine, they select, they shape, they control, they restrict -- in order to serve the interests of dominant, elite groups in the society.

> My point is that we don't think things "just because they want us to".

Actually, we do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTBWfkE7BXU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055PJ4R0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Chomsky lays out how the media is used to manufacture narratives and consent and shape public culture in it's entirety. You may think you are smarter than it, that you are immune because you aren't a member of the ignorant masses. But you'd be wrong. We are all susceptible to the medias influence on our thoughts.

1. Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins
   
   
2. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
   
   
3. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media by Edward Herman & Noam Chomsky
   
   
4. Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies and the Public Relations Industry by John Stauber

That’s not surprising. Propaganda works. There’s a book you might want to check out called Manufacturing Consent that explains why the media pushes certain ideas even if those ideas are lies. The book was written in the 80s but it’s just as true today as it was then.

https://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Consent-Political-Economy-Media-ebook/dp/B0055PJ4R0

anyone surprised by this should read this and this and later this

Here’s some books:

• 9 books

-most of these can be found in video form on YouTube

• understanding power

• manufacturing consent kindle (couldn’t find it as a pdf)

Chomsky is a great read, he also has some great lectures on YouTube. The reason that only a tiny minority knows him is because of his lack of appearance in mainstream media (in my opinion). He summarizes it greatly in this video:

Noam Chomsky- concision

Very related and, frankly, required reading: Manufacturing Consent

Disgusting. Also far too common. Further reading : Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent
Here

Not a well known book outside of the UK I think but brilliantly simple and impactful. Has been a cornerstone in my view of media along with Manufacturing Consent and Propaganda. Once you've gone through those you'll probably be more inclined to focus on your own life.

Not believing the CIA/mass media/whoever != believing Trump.

Here's something you should probably read.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055PJ4R0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1