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A conversation with attorney and game developer Mark Yohalem about his passion for point-and-click adventure games, and how his experiences as a player and fan inspired him to pursue game writing, to co-found Wormwood Studios (with artist Victor Pflug and programmer James Spanos) and, in 2010, to develop Primordia, a classical point-and-click adventure game that has sold roughly a quarter-million copies. Additional topics discussed include the potential of digital games to encourage empathy and connection; gaming fan communities; suitability of games for storytelling; gaming journalism, reviews and analysis; and games and creative work in relation to connection, participation and engagement.

Antwort auf einen Beitrag von John Corner in EJC, Vol. 18, Nr. 3, S. 367-375 ("Debate: the modell in question"), der sich wiederum kritisch mit einem Beitrag des Autors in EJC, Vol. 17, Nr. 2, S. 147-182 ("A critical review and assessment of Herman and Chomsky's 'propaganda model'") auseinandersetzte. Im Gegensatz zu J. Corner betont der Autor die Theoriefähigkeit des Propagandamodells. Mit seiner Beschreibung der Beziehungen zwischen Medien, Staat und Markt steht es in der Tradition strukturalistischer Konfliktansätze in der Soziologie. Die Nützlichkeit des Propagandamodells wird auch dadurch nicht in Frage gestellt, dass es keine Anleitungen dazu liefert, wie die beschriebenen Beziehungen zwischen den Machtträgern empirisch überprüft werden können. "On the extent to which critical perspectives conceptually confront how the interrelations of state, market and ideology constrain democracy, it is imperative to theorize the operation of power in relation to dominant structural elements." (UN)

Mass media play an especially important role in democratic societies. They are presupposed to act as intermediary vehicles that reflect public opinion, respond to public concerns and make the electorate cognizant of state policies, important events and viewpoints. The fundamental principles of democracy depend upon the notion of a reasonably informed electorate. The `propaganda model' of media operations laid out and applied by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media postulates that elite media interlock with other institutional sectors in ownership, management and social circles, effectively circumscribing their ability to remain analytically detached from other dominant institutional sectors. The model argues that the net result of this is self-censorship without any significant coercion. Media, according to this framework, do not have to be controlled nor does their behaviour have to be patterned, as it is assumed that they are integral actors in class warfare, fully integrated into the institutional framework of society, and act in unison with other ideological sectors, i.e. the academy, to establish, enforce, reinforce and `police' corporate hegemony. It is not a surprise, then, given the interrelations of the state and corporate capitalism and the `ideological network', that the propaganda model has been dismissed as a `conspiracy theory' and condemned for its `overly deterministic' view of media behaviour. It is generally excluded from scholarly debates on patterns of media behaviour. This article provides a critical assessment and review of Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model and seeks to encourage scholarly debate regarding the relationship between corporate power and ideology. Highly descriptive in nature, the article is concerned with the question of whether media can be seen to play a hegemonic role in society oriented towards legitimization, political accommodation and ideological management.

Die Massenmedien spielen in demokratischen Gesellschaften eine besonders wichtige Rolle. Sie sollen als Vermittler fungieren, die die öffentliche Meinung reflektieren, auf öffentliche Bedenken Antwort geben und die Wählerschaft über die Regierungspolitik, bedeutende Ereignisse und Standpunkte in Kenntnis setzen. Die fundamentalen Prinzipien der Demokratie hängen an der Idee einer hinreichend informierten Wählerschaft. Das "Propagandamodell", das Edward Herman und Noam Chomsky in ihrem Buch "Manufactoring Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" in bezug auf die Wirkungsweise der Medien entwickelt haben, geht davon aus, dass die führenden Medien mit anderen institutionellen Sektoren verzahnt sind, was Besitzverhältnisse, Management und gesellschaftliche Kreise angeht. Dadurch wird ihre Fähigkeit zur unparteiischen Analyse gegenüber anderen wichtigen institutionellen Sektoren wirksam eingeschränkt. Nach dem Modell ist das Endresultat Selbstzensur ohne erkennbaren Druck. Danach müssen auch die Medien nicht kontrolliert oder ihr Verhalten nach bestimmten Strukturen untersucht werden. Sie sind vielmehr integrale Akteure im Klassenkampf, vollständig integriert in den institutionellen Rahmen der Gesellschaft und handeln unisono mit anderen ideologischen Gesellschaftsbereichen, wie z.B. den Hochschulen mit dem Ziel, die Unternehmerherrschaft zu etablieren, sie durchzusetzen, zu verstärken und gewissermaßen als "Polizei" abzusichern. Es kann angesichts der engen Verflechtung von Staat, kapitalistischer Wirtschaft und "ideologischem Netzwerk" nicht verwundern, dass das Propagandamodell als "Konspirationstheorie" abgetan und wegen seiner "übertrieben deterministischen" Auffassung vom Verhalten der Medien für untauglich erklärt wurde. Es spielt generell in der wissenschaftlichen Diskussion über Strukturen des Medienverhaltens keine Rolle. Der Beitrag unterzieht das Propagandamodell von Herman und Chomsky einer kritischen Analyse und Bewertung mit dem Ziel, die wissenschaftliche Debatte über die Beziehungen zwischen wirtschaftlicher Macht und Ideologie zu ermutigen. Auf deskriptive Weise wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob die Medien eine führende Rolle in der Gesellschaft in bezug auf Legitimierung von Macht, politische Anpassung und ideologisches Management spielen. (UNübers.)

AbstractThe Propaganda Model (PM), developed by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky and published in Manufacturing Consent in 1988, sought to explain the behaviour of the mass media in the United States. Analysing the function, operation and effects of the media are essential to any understanding of contemporary societies and the article begins by sketching out the contours of the liberal‐pluralist vs. critical‐Marxist debate about the role of the media. The article then presents an overview of the PM, locates it within the field of media and communication studies, considers its reception, discusses a number of complementary methodological and theoretical approaches, and argues that the PM, more than 20 years after its formulation, continues to provide an invaluable tool for understanding the media within contemporary capitalist societies.

"Thirty years after Chomsky and Herman elaborated the Propaganda Model this title aims to introduce a new generation of readers to it. It presents cutting-edge research demonstrating the model's general validity as well as new attempts – in the light of digital media and 21st century politics – to critically update, expand, and refine it.
International researchers thus analyse the continuities and new developments in media
Environments throughout various regions of the world. Part I addresses the theoretical and methodological dimensions of the PM beginning with an interview with Edward Herman on the model itself. Part II reflects on propaganda as a concept and practice within new mediated digital communications systems and interfaces. Applications of the Propaganda Model are featured in Part III notably new forms of media and content not previously analysed within it: the entertainment industries through the analysis of television, professional sports, Hollywood movies and videogames using quantitative and qualitative research methods. The last section presents case studies of corporate media and reporting practices as reflections of elite power. An extensive re-visioning of the PM this book concludes by identifying the fundamental dimensions of the model, the key modifications and expansions that are suggested—such as the inclusion of new filters—whilst assessing the model's overall value for conducting research in different geographical contexts and media systems and products."

International audience ; The world is currently witnessing a revitalisation of the right and of authoritarian political tendencies. Right-wing forces across the globe have been able to push misogynist, homophobic and xenophobic discourses into the mainstream of politics and media. Whilst these developments have been fuelled by the neoliberal economic programmes unrolled since the 1970s, sexism and racism have always been anchored within the structures of real existing capitalism. This suggests, then, that many of the societal issues we are encountering today are rooted in structural disadvantage and oppression pertaining not only to economics and class but also to gender, race and ethnicity. Yet, approaches in Communication Studies and Cultural Studies have often engaged in separate interrogations of media misrepresentations in relation to either class and economics, or gender and/or race. On the other hand, intersectional scholarship has long highlighted how these societal spheres are interconnected and should thus be researched simultaneously. The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model constitutes the leading analytical tool to theorize and investigate media bias. The following contributions will conceptualize and illustrate how the PM relates to intersectional scholarship and societal structures. This will be done on the basis of theoretical elaborations and empirical case studies as well as broader discussions of the politics within the disciplines of Communications Studies and Cultural Studies. It will be demonstrated that the PM can be used to unveil interlocking media biases and misrepresentations deriving from parallel societal discriminations including classism, sexism and racism.

International audience ; Since its initial formulation in 1988, the Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model (PM) has become one of the most widely tested models of media performance in the social sciences. This is largely due to the combined efforts of a loose group of international scholars as well as an increasing number of students who have produced studies in the US, UK, Canadian, Australian, Japanese, Chinese, German, and Dutch contexts, amongst others. Yet, the PM has also been marginalised in media and communication scholarship, largely due to the fact that the PM"s radical scholarly outlook challenges the liberal and conservative underpinnings of mainstream schools of thought in capitalist democracies. This paper brings together, for the first time, leading scholars to discuss important questions pertaining to the PM"s origins, public relevance, connections to other approaches within Communication Studies and Cultural Studies, applicability in the social media age, as well as impact and influence. The paper aligns with the 30 th anniversary of the PM and the publication of the collected volume, The Propaganda Model Today, and highlights the PM"s continued relevance at a time of unprecedented corporate consolidation of the media, extreme levels of inequality and class conflict as well as emergence of new forms of authoritarianism.

Since its initial formulation in 1988, the Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model (PM) has become one of the most widely tested models of media performance in the social sciences. This is largely due to the combined efforts of a loose group of international scholars as well as an increasing number of students who have produced studies in the US, UK, Canadian, Australian, Japanese, Chinese, German, and Dutch contexts, amongst others. Yet, the PM has also been marginalised in media and communication scholarship, largely due to the fact that the PM"s radical scholarly outlook challenges the liberal and conservative underpinnings of mainstream schools of thought in capitalist democracies. This paper brings together, for the first time, leading scholars to discuss important questions pertaining to the PM"s origins, public relevance, connections to other approaches within Communication Studies and Cultural Studies, applicability in the social media age, as well as impact and influence. The paper aligns with the 30th anniversary of the PM and the publication of the collected volume, The Propaganda Model Today, and highlights the PM"s continued relevance at a time of unprecedented corporate consolidation of the media, extreme levels of inequality and class conflict as well as emergence of new forms of authoritarianism.