American Television: Manufacturing Consumerism
Tabe Bergman
Chapter from the book: Pedro-Carañana, J et al. 2018. The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness.
Part of
Chapter from the book: Pedro-Carañana, J et al. 2018. The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness.
This chapter introduces a propaganda model for American television and its content. Its chief aims are to contribute to theorizing about American television and providing an introductory framework for reflecting on its societal function. After discussing the continuing importance of television as a medium and the existing literature on American television, which tends to downplay or ignore encompassing political-economic perspectives, the chapter presents a propaganda model for American television (PMTV) by adapting the original model’s five filters and showing that American television programming reflects the political economy of the television industry. Finally the chapter discusses limitations of a PMTV, including methodological ones, the value of a PMTV in the digital age, and anticipated objections to a PMTV.
Bergman, T. 2018. American Television: Manufacturing Consumerism. In: Pedro-Carañana, J et al (eds.), The Propaganda Model Today. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book27.k
This chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution + Noncommercial + NoDerivatives 4.0 license. Copyright is retained by the author(s)
This book has been peer reviewed. See our Peer Review Policies for more information.
Published on Oct. 25, 2018