The Yes Men

The works of the Yes Men align themselves best with Gramsci's Marxist based concept of hegemony, followed by Marx's concept of false consciousness and Chomsky's Marxist-based model of propaganda model.

The Yes Men criticizes corporations and free market for making profit/monetary gain the primary concern. In the process, the negative externalities/means of production/risks is over-ruled by the end result. The end justifies the means. (such is the case in the Bopal disaster, in which human lives are overruled for profit and then after the disaster "erased"; such is the case of Katrina and post-Katrina restoration process-- that the welfare of human lives are overruled by profit.

The Yes Men's critique of the media seems to be:
-that media (both news and corporation generated media) fails to bring consciousness to the people. and that this is a failure of democracy in the public sphere, in which ideally the media should/could serve as the public watchdog. Through what's reported and what's not reported, media plays along, and is controlled by hegemony- that media themselves too, do not think they can change the system, and are blinded just as the readers/viewers are.
-that the media, as a way to facilitate the private sphere and the authority, is dominated by the power of the free market and capitalism, that the powerful and relevant voices that do appear in media often belong/align themselves with big money corporations-- they are the ones to get to speak, but other voices are irrelevant (as shown by The Yes Men's invitations to speak on news channels and conferences when posing as these powerful figures, but their voice and opinions are made irrelevant and trivialized when media finds out that they do not have the position they claim to have).

The Yes Men's pranks work as an analysis that breaks down and explains the workings of the media by addressing the two issues listed above (respectively):
-who has the power in media? Yes Men's opinions are promptly dismissed, trivialized, and marginalized once media finds out Yes Men do not hold the position they claim to have-- this demonstrate media's way to determine whose voice is heard, what news is reported, and what are relevant (or not).
-Yes Men lends mirror to hegemony: Yes Men's prank of NY Times lends a mirror to the news as it currently is-- that news media do not believe they have the ability to change the system, that they serve to suppress, coerce, and persuade the mass (and they themselves is persuaded by hegemony)

Yes Men lists the veil of false consciousness by connecting the means of production to the end product and by listing the false veil of the sense of inability to change matters. Yes Men's pranks illustrate hegemony, as there is some positive response to their pranks by some members of the society, such as members of the mass (NY Times prank) and some members of the corporate world(Katrina prank).