When Media Goes To War:
Hegemonic Discourse, Public Opinion, and the Limits of Dissent
by Anthony DiMaggio
ISBN: 978-1-58367-199-3
$18.95 paperback
144 pp.
February 2010
Media / Current Events
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“A pioneering book. It tells the story of how public debate on issues is restricted to the agenda of political elites. The scholarship is superb and the narrative is direct and convincing. I recommend it to students, scholars, and libraries. It is a must read for any journalist dealing with foreign affairs.”
— Jamal R. Nassar, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences,
California State University, San Bernardino
“In this meticulously researched, highly informative, and timely volume, DiMaggio skillfully explores how hegemonic media messages are shaped and transmitted in mainstream media’s reporting of international events. Zeroing in on political coverage of the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and the rhetorical war with Iran, DiMaggio methodically illustrates the interconnections between media, government, and commerce.”
— Yahya R. Kamalipour, Center for Global Studies,
Purdue University, Calumet
“Forsaking the comfort of the ‘land of assumption’ where media and media scholars accept official versions of crucial political and social issues, DiMaggio introduces the reader to the realm of media realpolitik. In the process, DiMaggio provides an extended defense of the much maligned Propaganda Model with chapter after chapter of ample evidence that corporate media routinely ‘align public opinion to political leadership’ positions. Using multiple contemporary examples, DiMaggio demonstrates that the social position and function of media owners, and their leading ‘spokesmodel’ journalists and editors, comprises and constructs a non-reflective world of ‘active consent to official doctrines.’ This book needs to be required reading for all media studies and media literacy classes from high school through graduate school.”
— Lee Artz, Media Studies Professor
and Associate Director, Center for Global Studies
Purdue University, Calumet
In this fresh and provocative book, Anthony DiMaggio uses the war in Iraq and the United States confrontations with Iran as his touchstones to probe the sometimes fine line between news and propaganda. Using Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and drawing upon the seminal works of Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, and Robert McChesney, DiMaggio combines a rigorous empirical analysis and clear, lucid prose to enlighten readers about issues essential to the struggle for a critical media and a functioning democracy. If, as DiMaggio shows, our newspapers and television news programs play a decisive role in determining what we think, and if, as he demonstrates convincingly, what the media give us is largely propaganda that supports an oppressive and undemocratic status quo, then it is incumbent upon us to make sure that they are responsive to the majority and not just the powerful and privileged few.
Anthony DiMaggio teaches American Government and International Relations at Illinois State University in the department of politics and government. He publishes regularly in Z Magazine and CounterPunch, and is the author of Mass Media, Mass Propaganda: Examining American News in the “War on Terror.”
