Manufactured Consent: Five Filters of Media Bias

In an era of political turmoil and and misinformation, it is more important than ever to critically evaluate and critique the news media we consume. Even traditionally trustworthy news sources are not immune to bias and manipulation. Not only must we be vigilant with the accuracy of the information we consume, we must also be aware of what we’re not being told–what context is being left out? What stories are being buried? What stories are being pushed? What loaded language is being used?

A productive tool I’ve found to examine the news I consume is a propaganda model advanced by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Horton in their book, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.

The video this graphic is based off of is Al Jazeera’s short video, narrated by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Vectors can be found here.