Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky
and the Media
Film poster
Directed by Mark Achbar
Peter Wintonick
Starring Mark Achbar
Noam Chomsky
Release date(s) 1992
Running time 167 minutes
Country Australia
Finland
Norway
Canada
Language English
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the
Media
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
(1992) is a documentary film that explores the political life
and ideas of Noam Chomsky, a linguist, intellectual, and
political activist. Created by two Canadian filmmakers,
Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, it expands on the ideas
of Chomsky's earlier book, Manufacturing Consent: The
Political Economy of the Mass Media, which he co-wrote
with Edward S. Herman.
The film presents and illustrates Chomsky's and Herman's
thesis that corporate media, as profit-driven institutions,
tend to serve and further the agendas of the interests of
dominant, elite groups in the society. A centerpiece of the
film is a long examination of the history of The New York
Times' coverage of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor,
which Chomsky says exemplifies the media's unwillingness
to criticize an ally of the elite.
Until the release of The Corporation (2003), made by Mark
Achbar, Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan, it was the most
successful feature documentary in Canadian history, played
theatrically in over 300 cities around the world; won 22
awards; appeared in more than 50 international film
festivals; and was broadcast in over 30 markets. It has also
been translated into a dozen languages.
Chomsky's response to the film was mixed; in a published
conversation with Achbar and several activists, he stated
that film simply doesn't communicate his message, leading
people to believe that he is the leader of some movement
that they should join. In the same conversation, he criticizes
The New York Times review of the film, which mistakes his
message for being a call for voter organizing rather than
media critique.[1]
Contents
1 Companion book
2 See also
3 External links
3.1 Multimedia
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4 References
Companion book
Mark Achbar edited a companion book of the same name. It features a copy of the script annotated with
excerpts from referenced and relevant materials as well as several comments from Chomsky interspersed
throughout. Eighteen "Philosopher All-Stars" baseball cards (as seen in the film) are also included. On the back
of each card it includes a short summary of the person, some of their major works and a series of quotations
attributed to the individual. The people featured as cards in the set are: René Descartes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Voltaire, Mary Wollstonecraft, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Pierre Joseph Proudhon, Sojourner Truth, Karl Marx,
Sitting Bull, Rosa Luxemburg, Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Bertrand
Russell, Michel Foucault, and Avram Noam Chomsky. The book made the national bestseller list in Canada.
The first half of the book, hyperlinked to the relevant portions of the film's audio, is available online
(http://zmag.org/chomsky/mc/) from Z Magazine. The entire book is available as a PDF document on the
Region 2 DVD of the film.
See also
Concentration of media ownership
Propaganda model
External links
Official website (http://www.necessaryillusions.ca/catalogue/manufacturingconsent.html)
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104810/) at the
Internet Movie Database
Zeitgeist Films (US distributor) page for the film (http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com
/film.php?directoryname=manufacturingconsent)
NFB Web page (http://www.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=54601)
The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model Twenty Years On (http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-2203)
Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 6(2), 2009
Multimedia
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (http://www.archive.org/details
/NoamChomskyNoamChomskyManufacturingConsent_0) available for free download at the Internet
Archive [more]
Manufacturing Consent (http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/mc/index.cfm) - first half of the companion book
with corresponding audio from the film in RealAudio format
First half of the film's audio (http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/ed270/audio/manufacturing.mp3)
(MP3)
References
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