Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)

A film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media's role in modern propaganda.

Directors:

Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick

Stars:

Noam Chomsky, Mark Achbar, Karin Aguilar-San Juan

4 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Mark Achbar	...	Himself - Interviewer
Karin Aguilar-San Juan	...	Herself - South End Collective
Paul Andrews	...	Himself - The Seattle Times
William F. Buckley	...	Himself (archive footage) (as William F. Buckley Jr.)
Noam Chomsky	...	Himself
Robert Faurisson	...	Himself
Jeff Greenfield	...	Himself (voice) (archive footage)
Jeff Hansen	...	Himself (voice) (archive footage)
Loie Hayes	...	Herself - South End Collective
Edward S. Herman	...	Himself
Arnold Kohen	...	Himself - Journalist
Robert MacNeil	...	Himself (voice) (archive footage)
Bill Moyers	...	Himself (archive footage)
Yossi Olmert	...	Himself - Tel Aviv University (archive footage)
Lydia Sargent	...	Herself - Z Magazine

Storyline

This film showcases Noam Chomsky, one of America's leading linguists and political dissidents. It also illustrates his message of how government and big media businesses cooperate to produce an effective propaganda machine in order to manipulate the opinions of their populations. The key examples featured for this analysis are the simultaneous events of the massive coverage of the communist atrocities of Khmer Rouge regime of Cambodia and the suppression of news of the US supported Indonesian invasion and subjugation of East Timor.

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Plot Keywords:

media | east timor | manufacturing consent | media criticism | critical thinking | 

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Taglines:

A Primer In Intellectual Self-Defense

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Necessary Illusions [Canada] Zeitgeist Films [United States]

Country:

Australia Finland Norway Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 November 1992 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Chomsky, les médias et les illusions nécessaires

Filming Locations:

American University - 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Humanist Broadcasting Foundation,National Film Board of Canada (NFB),Necessary Illusions Productions Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

167 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For all the onscreen text - title cards, name and location information, etc. - all the letters 's' were converted to $ and all the letters 'c' were converted to ¢. This occurs not just in the end credits, but throughout the entire movie.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[title card: They who have put out the peoples eyes reproach them of their blindness. - John Milton, 1642. ]
EMTV video host: Three, two, one, take two. Good morning!... My name is Kevin Flook, and I'm your video host all day here at EMTV.

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Crazy Credits

For Emile de Antonio and the people of East Timor

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Connections

Featured in Dominance and Terror: A Discussion with Noam Chomsky (2004)

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Soundtracks

For What It's Worth
Written by Stephen Stills
Performed by Buffalo Springfield
Produced by Charles Greene and Brian Stone
Courtesy of Ten East Music, Springalo & Cotillion (BMI)
Published by Warner-Tamerlan Publishing Corp.
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products
© Warner/Chappell Music Inc.

User Reviews

Maybe not the best documentary, but surely one of the most thought-provoking films ever.

Manufacturing Consent attempts to teach deep social, political and philosophical studies with mainstream and sometimes simplistic filmmaking that edges on a PowerPoint visual aids strategy. But... it works! The movie is not necessarily targeting MIT intelligentsia, but the people-in-the-street that the same media depicted in the film are aiming at. If you liked the movie, or if it just left you wondering, read the book! The film and/or the book will probably be worth your time... more, anyway, than any Hollywood littering the screens nowadays. In this day and age of political and social polarization, of media playing the role of king-makers (or king-slayers), of discussions of the very existence or relevancy of democracy in a highly mediated and influenced political climate, Chomsky's suggestions are as timely as ever.