Week #1- The Propaganda Model and Gramsci's Conception of Hegemony

After class on Tuesday the idea of globalization encompassing so many working definitions was definitely the most important idea pulled from our seminar. Although I did the readings and have encountered this idea of globalization several times before it was not until this class that I actually had the chance to break down and analyze the main competing theories of globalization in such a detailed and critical manner. In layman’s terms, the idea of globalization can essentially be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society. This process is described as encompassing a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces.

Appropriately, we devoted much time to picking apart and thoroughly understanding perspectives on globalization such as modernization theory, dependency theory, and theories of the information society. Although I found the explanations and criticisms of such theories to greatly contribute to my working definition of globalization I was somewhat disgruntled by the amount of time devoted in the text to the notion of hegemony , especially how it relates to the mass media being an instrument of propaganda. As it was briefly suggested in chapter 2, Chomsky and Herman’s propaganda model examine how news in mainstream US media systems pass through several filters, including the size, ownership, and profit orientation of media firms. The heavy reliance of news corporations on advertising and dependence on business and governmental sources for information, in a way interact with and reinforce the ideas of Gramsci.

Essentially, Gramsci’s conception of hegemony is rooted in the notion that the dominant social group in a society has the capacity to exercise intellectual and moral direction over society at large, and to build a new system of social alliances to support its aims. In other words, the most effective way of wielding power is to build consent by ideological control of cultural production and distribution ie. the media. These ideas seem to fit perfectly with Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model as a way of explaining the political function of the mass media in propagating and maintaining the dominant ideology of the select group in power. Thus, it can be argued that, although the media here in Canada for example, are free from direct government control, they nevertheless act as agents to legitimize the chosen dominant ideology. So the next time you feel unsatisfied with your preferred news reportage corporations coverage ask yourself this… What feeds into this hegemonic cycle and what alternative methods can you take to find the stories you really want to hear about?