Deconstructing the
News
- Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, “A Propaganda Model,” from Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, 1988
- Sheldon Rampton, “Has the Internet Changed the Propaganda Model?,” Center for Media and Democracy: PRWatch.org, May 22, 2007.
- Jay Rosen, "PressThink Basics: The Master Narrative in Journalism"
- Daniel Hallin, "TV's Clean Little War," (on the first Gulf War), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 47, 16-20, May 1991.
- Streeter, "The concept of ideology" http://www.uvm.edu/%7Etstreete/semiotics_and_ads/ideology_intro.html (exerpted from the Semiotics and Media Website: http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/semiotics_and_ads)
What are the five filters of Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model? How does Rampton apply them to the current Iraq war? What does Rosen mean by "the master narrative" in journalism? What are some examples of it? What does Rosen mean when he says that reporters "dwell" in master narratives? Why does he think journalists should learn to think critically about master narratives?
What definition of "ideology" is characteristic of the field of semiotics? How is it different from other uses of the term, such as Herman and Chomsky’s? What are some examples of how ideology can be seen to work in the formal aspects of news coverage?