Applying Herman & Chomsky's propaganda model to WWE.

Herman and Chomsky came up with the propaganda model to explain the behaviour of the media in the United States. They believed that the free market press was not a free press; as they say in Manufacturing Consent, "the global balance of power has shifted decisively toward commercial systems" (Herman and Chomsky, 1988). Herman Chomsky believed that there were five distinct filters through which corporate-owned media passed through before it was deemed suitable for the consumers, the shareholders and most importantly the owners (Herman and Chomsky, 1988). In this blog post, I will be applying their five filters to the WWE and exploring how the filters have impacted some of the decisions the company and its owners have made.

Ownership

While WWE is not itself owned by a larger conglomerate, the channel on which it broadcasts its television shows, USA Network, is a subsidiary of NBC Universal. In mid-2015, Sheamus, who had been booked as a midcard wrestler, recieved the Money in the Bank briefcase, giving him a match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at any time (WWE Money in the Bank, 2015). There was speculation among fans that this angle was booked to tie-in with Sheamus' role in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, a Universal Studios project (Sheamus WWE champion for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 release?, 2015). Sure enough, at Survivor Series, Sheamus, won the title from Roman Reigns (WWE Survivor Series, 2015) and, two weeks later, the trailer for TMNT2 was uploaded to YouTube.

Advertising

In 2008, WWE changed their programming, which for ten years had been violent and mature in nature, back to the family-friendly style of the 1980's to appeal to advertisers. From 2010 to 2013, merchandise revenue from Mattel licensed action figures rose from $110 million to $160 million (Graser, 2013). In fact, one of WWE's biggest controversies of the PG Era led to a sponsorship deal. During his feud with The Rock in 2011, John Cena compared his rival to Fruity Pebbles cereal and used homophobic slurs in a dis-rap against him. LGBT charity GLAAD took umbrage to this and WWE was forced to make an apology, but Post Cereals saw the publicity the line had gotten and began using Cena in their advertising campaigns and putting his likeness on boxes of Fruity Pebbles (Schultz, 2013).

Sourcing

WWE produces its own news media on WWE.com and formerly in WWE Magazine. In the modern age, its reporting tends to switch around between articles which treat wrestling as a legitimate sport and those which lay bare its status as a form of entertainment. An example of the former, in which WWE followed up on Roman Reigns being injured at the hands of Triple H when some speculated that he was given a blood capsule (Carrier, 2016), can be found here (Wortman, 2016).

Flak

The term "flak" refers to political or corporate backlash from certain actions. In 2009 the company's CEO, Linda McMahon, announced that she would begin running for the United States Senate (Whittell, 2010). Because McMahon was a conservative Republican, she didn't want the flak from a product that had come under fire from censors in the past for being unsuitable for families and resigned from the company when her bid began (Fightmaster, 2009).

Anti-Communism

Professional wrestling has been very much guilty of this in the past. The first real communist heel was a "bear-man" named Ivan Koloff, played the Quebecois Oreal Perras. In 1971, Koloff was booked to end the seven-year WWWF Championship reign of the company's top good guy, Bruno Sammartino. Due to a combination of anti-communist fears, the portrayal of his character and many audience members still believing wrestling to be a legitimate sport, his win was met with silence; Sammartino himself feared he had gone deaf (Henry, 2015). WWE has also been guilty of driving other fear-based media ideologies with characters like Muhammad Hassan, a Muslim who once "prayed" for men in ski masks to kidnap The Undertaker (WWE Smackdown, 2005) and the Putin-supporting Lana, who brought up the MH-17 plane crash- accused of being perpetrated by pro-Russian rebels- in one of her talking segments (WWE Battleground, 2014).

SOURCES

Carrier, S. (2016). Roman Reigns Blades on Monday's RAW?. [online] All Wrestling News. Available at: http://www.allwrestlingnews.com/wwe-news/roman-reigns-blades-mondays-raw/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2016].

Fightmaster, M. (2009). WWE CEO Linda McMahon resigns to lay a smackdown on the U.S. Senate - DailyFinance. [online] DailyFinance.com. Available at: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/16/wwe-ceo-linda-mcmahon-resigns-to-lay-the-smackdown-on-the-u-s-s/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2016].

Graser, M. (2013). WWE’s Promo Mania. [online] Variety. Available at: http://variety.com/2013/biz/news/wwe-promotion-mania-john-cena-mcmahon-1200343356/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2016].

Henry, J. (2015). 25 Memorable WWE Moments At Madison Square Garden. [online] Camel Clutch Blog. Available at: http://camelclutchblog.com/25-memorable-wwe-moments-at-madison-square-garden/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2016].

Herman, E. and Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent. New York: Pantheon Books.

Schultz, E. (2013). Fruity Pebbles Raw: WWE Star Finishes Fred Flintstone. [online] Adage.com. Available at: http://adage.com/article/news/wwe-s-cena-boots-fred-flintstone-fruity-pebbles-box/239009/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2016].

Sheamus WWE champion for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 release?. (2016). [online] Wrestlingforum.com. Available at: http://www.wrestlingforum.com/general-wwe/1762953-sheamus-wwe-champion-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-2-release.html [Accessed 6 Mar. 2016].

Whittell, G. (2010). WWE boss Linda McMahon takes ten-point lead in Republican race for the Senate | The Times. [online] The Times. Available at: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article2465775.ece [Accessed 6 Mar. 2016].

Wortman, J. (2016). Update: Roman Reigns provides exclusive post-surgery day 2 photo following Triple H attack. [online] www.wwe.com. Available at: http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2016-02-22/article/reigns-surgery [Accessed 6 Mar. 2016].

WWE Battleground. (2014). [DVD] Tampa: WWE.

WWE Smackdown, (2005). [TV programme] UPN.

WWE Survivor Series. (2015). [DVD] Atlanta: WWE.