Manufacturing Consent in the Age of YouTube: The Case of Kony 2012

This paper investigates to what extent the ‘Propaganda Model’, which Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky developed in their work ‘Manufacturing Consent’ (1988), applies to United States media discourses on how the US government should respond to the atrocities of the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. It establishes that the media in general does not sufficiently address US geopolitical and economic interests in the Central African region, the relative lack of civil rights in Ugandan society as a US ally, abuses by the Ugandan army, human rights implications of US support for Ugandan government policies, and the history of Western relations with Uganda. Instead of scrutinizing those aspects, the media highlights humanitarian concerns. By and large, these findings support the propaganda model.