Chomsky’s Discourse on US Foreign Policy, Media and Human Rights Interface: Implications to Indian Media

Abstract

The United States (US) is usually thought of as a nation representing freedom, democracy and human rights. However, as shown by Noam Chomsky and a few others, the US has turned out to be the most dominant imperialist nation as it is a ‘super power’ with immense political and economic clout. The US has been involved in human rights’ violations, Chomsky claims, with an intention of capturing markets for its goods and services, but has been successful in veiling it by shaping popular consciousness through its hegemony over popular media.

Chomsky argues that the US has been preparing the ground for human rights’ violations by the use of ‘Propaganda Model’ which ‘filters’ reality in such a way as to give the ‘news’ that is perverted to serve the needs of the ruling elite. For instance, in many of the ‘news’ reports the weapons of mass destruction used by the US are attributed human traits while the citizens of the enemy nation are presented as nameless “aggressors” or “terrorists”.

The relevance of the paper rests on working out the implications of Chomsky’s perspectives on the use of media by the US to serve its propagandist model and the implications of such tendencies to nations like India. The paper also tries to work out the possible way out of this impasse.

Keywords: Culture of terrorism, human rights, media, propaganda model, US imperialism