Are we really sure that concepts such as propaganda only apply to countries like North Korea or China, and that Western civilisation is, on the other side, the gatekeepers of freedom and democracy?

The truth is that, even in the absence of a state media apparatus, phenomena like propaganda are present and very much alive. One of the core concepts of Noam Chomsky’s theory, explored in this video, is that the media manufactures consent in dictatorships as well as in liberal democracies. And the process is very much the same.

Media not only tell us what we need to know, but also convey messages in the way they want us to understand, because they are private corporations that have specific interests in directing the audiences choices and tastes. The establishment encourages this complicity between media and power because they want to share a slice of the same cake.