Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Author: Noam Chomsky List Price: £6.99 Our Price: £5.49 You Save: £1.50 (21%) Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Paperback 104 pages Release Date: 01 September 2002 Publisher: Seven Stories Press,U.S. ISBN: 1583225366 Rating:   Sales Rank: 1452 | | Look for similar books by subject: | | Customers who bought this item also bought:
| | Customer Reviews: Beautiful (01 January 2009)Such a beautiful piece of writing. - my one question? - in the context of the content, how is this information allowed to circulate so freely. would there not be some means of shutting it down,? How (to put it bluntly) has Noam survived?, if not physically then at least academically? if there is such a strong, central power-base that is self-aware enough to see the potential fragility of their methods, why would they allow this work to be distributed. to me that says, that either the powers aren't as competent as I had feared.. or... Noam Chomsky is a genuine hero who's memes should be treasured beyond measure. from the way this book reached me, I'd plump for the latter. thank you and peace and love A really excellent short exposition (04 June 2008)Unlike many of Chomsky's other political books this one is somewhat easier to read and the points it gets across are lucidly put It is also short and would make an excellent introduction to his work and ideas Nothing much surprising in this book (13 November 2007)Overall an interesting little book, but the topic is much too complex to adequately cover in such a small book/pamphlet. In my opinion it is also lacking examples from Nazi Germany, which would much better highlight the achievements of propaganda in media. Also, from a European perspective, where there are much broader and more independent sources of news reporting, US propaganda in media form is pretty much "old news". Chomsky (10 February 2007)This is a great place to start if you're new to Chomsky and political books. It is one of his most accessible books, with a lots of varied information to whet your appetite. You are left with a feeling of shock, but also a desire to go out and learn more, which this book points you in the right direction of. Well worth a read. How is Internet going to impact the Media Control? (15 January 2007)This is another book from Chomsky that makes you look at the American political life from a critical point of view. He has a certain style in writing his books; he makes an hypothesis and builds the book around it. The hypothesis of this book is that American democracy developed towards a system (which he calls "spectator democracy") during early 20th century in which there is an elite group that basically "figure things out" for the rest, i.e. "bewildered herd". For this system to work, the elite group engineer others' opinions by using propaganda or in other words by using public relations. As you would guess, once the elite group recognize the power they have, they start abusing the system for their own benefit but not for that of the public (the herd). He gives many examples, including First World War, labor union laws, Vietnam War and The Gulf War to prove his hypothesis. What I found unsatisfactory is the lack of his ideas about how Internet is going to impact the propaganda tools that the elite group use. With only TV, newspapers and radio in place, engineering others' opinions were easier because it was enough to own or cooperate with few media channels. With Internet getting more available for the masses, it is a totally different ball game. An individual or a group gets the power to produce or share content to inform and influence others. So, his analysis fails to explain what role Internet will play in this whole argument of "media control". Having said that, I respect Noam as an honest and smart intellectual and highly recommend this book to everyone who would like to understand how media can be and was used as an evil tool. His analysis is powerful yet not totally contemporary. | |
