Firstly, let’s start by looking at a picture of what you thought was happening when you first saw it.
Do you think the workers were kneeling for their wages?
But in fact, the workers were learning CPR.
Because it was spread too much on the internet, the first image was maliciously published by some media outlets. It was titled “Chinese workers kneel to demand wages.” When I saw the first picture, I was shocked. But when I found the original source, it was actually taken secretly by a person while these workers were studying and posted on China’s TikTok. In the comments, many people criticized “the shooting Angle is difficult”, and “you have been hired by XX media.” These comments show that we have been led by some bad media for a long time.
This phenomenon is known as Manufacturing Consent. This term is mentioned in “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media” written by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman. The role of the mass media is to keep a watchful eye on the most powerful people and institutions, but the opposite is true: the mass media have become dominated by them. This gives the people at the top of the hierarchy permanent power and control over information. This means that the government and those who control the country have more control over what you see.
- The media reports events in a way that favours the elite ruling class.
In some news, people in the upper class will selectively report the news in order to control public opinion, because some facts will involve their interests.
- The media needs advertising revenue so coverage needs to lean towards what advertisers are paying attention to.
Why do some media outlets need adverts to support them, due to expensive journalist fees and other factors, sponsors will pay to support their station, but as a result, will have to air their adverts to maximise their buying power.
Reference:
manufacture of consent (no date) Oxford Reference. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100132197.
S.T. (The B. (2023) ‘A Review of “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media”’, Medium, 30 May. Available at: https://medium.com/@thebookwormsquill/a-review-of-manufacturing-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-mass-media-fc9f2e3adeb6 (Accessed: 23 November 2023).
Your blog triggered me to think about truth in journalism. As the media became dependent on the money brought in by adverts or sponsors, the media would broadcast what favoured the advertisers or what the advertisers wanted to broadcast. So in fact, much of the news we see is what the media wants us to see. It’s a phenomenon of consent being manufacturing consent by those at the top.
The manufacturing of consent is a really interesting subject, and your explanation of the theory is clear it was easy to understand. However, you didn’t explain how news outlets manipulated the first image and provided no examples of how it was manipulated. You only explained what the theory was and didn’t evaluate its effectiveness and its relevance to what you were trying to discuss. I think this is a key limitation of your work and it could be improved by looking into the ways that things are manipulated and potentially critiquing how applicable the theory is.
Like the other comments, the explanation of the theory was straight to the point. However, the image that you used in the beginning to get us to know what was really happening with the workers, where’s the source for that? Exactly who/what was manipulating us into thinking that the workers were not doing CPR. I think telling us who/what did that and the purpose for that would have helped as that is what the theory is about; changing the narrative into something else entirely. Also, your opinion on why that happened would have been that personal thing to add on.
You have explained Manufacturing Consent clearly through this example. If the content reported by the media is not complete, it will have a great impact on people.
At the beginning, I like your image because it sparked my interest in reading the rest of the content. I also agree with your idea that the media is indeed manipulated by eliets. However, you did not explain how the information which presented in the picture is related to the manufacturing consent. You only briefly introduced the propaganda model without delving into the topic, and there is a lack of content to analysis.