At risk of sounding pretentious, is Manufacturing Consent really all that important?
It seems that most people who care already understand the high-level principals of US media propaganda manufacturing, and those who don't care wouldn't read the book.
"It seems that most people who care already understand the high-level principals of US media propaganda manufacturing..."
Well, how do principals emerge in the first place? Often by intense research, data gathering, and sound argumentation.
I can't think of another work out there that lays this foundation like MC. If you do read it (or watch the documentary which I've heard is pretty good), you might be surprised at some of the filters that exist in the modern propaganda model. I sure was.
Anecdotally, I have plenty of well-educated friends who "care" and also consider themselves very media-literate. A lot of them also readily parrot talking points from the NY Times.
Having this body of work (which is an academic goliath, even by Chomsky and Herman's standards) is essential to critical media studies.
It seems that most people who care already understand the high-level principals of US media propaganda manufacturing, and those who don't care wouldn't read the book.
For the record, I haven't read the book.