What are the mass media? They're huge corporations, massive corporations, linked up with even bigger corporations. They sell audiences to other businesses, namely advertisers. So when you turn on the television set, CBS doesn't make any money from you; they make money from the advertisers. You're the product that they're selling, and the same is true of the daily newspapers. They're huge corporations, selling audiences, potential consumers, to other businesses, all linked up closely to the government, especially the big media. What picture of the world do you expect them to present?

1 In contrast to the standard idea of the media as searching for truth and being independent of authority, we have applied a propaganda model that sees the media as serving a “societal purpose”. However, this does not enable the public to take control of the political process by giving them information needed to take on intelligent political responsibilities. On the contrary, a propaganda model suggests that the "societal purpose" of the media is to support the economic, social, and political agenda of privileged groups that dominate society. The media serve this purpose in many ways: through their selection of topics, framing of issues, filtering of information, emphasis and tone, and by keeping debate within certain limits. The U.S. media do not function like the propaganda system of a totalitarian state. Rather, they permit, even encourage debate and criticism, as long as they remain within the system of principles that form an elite consensus, a system so powerful as to be unconsciously accepted.
2 In the process, the media provide neither facts nor analyses that would enable the public to understand the issues of government policy; this assures that the public cannot have any real influence on decisions. This is quite typical of the actual "societal purpose" of the media on matters that are important to the establishment; not "enabling the public to have control over the political process," but rather avoiding such danger. Thus, the public is managed from above by means of the media's selective messages and evasions. Media analyst W. Lance Bennett notes, “the public hears powerful persuasivemessages from above but is unable to respond. Leaders have taken over political power and reduced popular control over the political system by using the media to generate support, compliance, and just plain confusion among the public.”
3 Media analyst Ben Bagdikian says that the institutional bias of the private mass media "does not only protect the corporate system, it robs the public of a chance to understand the real world.” Basically, the private media are major corporations selling a product (readers and audiences) to other businesses (advertisers). The national media typically target and serve elite opinion – groups that provide an optimal "profile" for advertising purposes, and play a role in decision-making. The national media would be failing to meet the needs of this elite audience if they did not present a tolerably realistic picture of the world. But their "societal purpose" also requires that the media interpretation of the world reflect the interests of the sellers, buyers, and governmental and private institutions dominated by these elites.
4 There are other factors that induce obedience. A journalist who does not want to have to work too hard can survive by publishing information from standard sources; however, these may be denied to those who do not pass on the “state propaganda” as fact. The structure of the media compels adherence to conventional thoughts: nothing more can be expressed between two commercials, or in 700 words, without appearing absurd. This is difficult when challenging familiar doctrine with no real chance to develop facts or arguments. As such, the U.S. media are different from those in other industrial democracies, and the consequences are noticeable in the narrowness of expressed opinion and analysis. The critic must also be prepared to face a defamation apparatus with little protection. The result is a powerful system of induced conformity to the needs of privilege and power.
5 In sum, the mass media of the U. S. are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supporting propaganda function by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, but without direct force. This propaganda system has become even more efficient in recent decades with the rise of national television networks, greater mass-media concentration, right-wing pressures on public radio and television, and the growth in the scope and sophistication of public relations and news management.