The Legacy of Edward Herman

Abstract

This article reflects on the legacy of the American media critic and political economist Edward Herman; his influence on the field of media scholarship, and on the author’s own work. Its notes that Herman’s contribution has often been underappreciated due to Chomsky’s enormous stature as a public intellectual, and argues that as the principal author of the ‘propaganda model’ Herman made a significant contribution to scholarly and public understanding of the private news media. It notes a number of weaknesses in Manufacturing Consent, some of which are well known and have been addressed by the authors: an overemphasis on ‘closure’ and homogeneity in media systems, and a related ‘media centrism’ that may engender a certain political fatalism; an underdeveloped conception of the role of ideology; and a lack of empirical evidence on the operation of the five ‘filters’ as casual mechanisms giving rise to media content. It concludes that such weaknesses notwithstanding, Herman’s model is an exemplary piece of sociological theorising, and is only deterministic or simplistic insofar as it is ambitious and schematic.

Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities
College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities > Sociology and Policy
College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities > Centre for Critical Inquiry into Society and Culture (CCISC)
Additional Information: ©The Author(s) 2018 CC-BY-NC-ND
Uncontrolled Keywords: Edward S. Herman,propaganda model,manufacturing consent,terrorism experts,corporate-state power,Sociology and Political Science,Communication
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2024 08:27
Date Deposited: 16 Jan 2019 08:52
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://journalc ... article/view/62 (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2018-12-17
Accepted Date: 2018-12-01
Authors: Mills, Tom (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-1389-7577)

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