The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Mediaby Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld
W.W. Norton, 2011. 170 pgs. Nonfiction.
Brooke Gladstone is the host of On the Media, a weekly program on NPR that analyzes current issues and trends in the media. In this book, she teams up with artist Josh Neufeld to describe the history of news, and why the things we complain about now are really nothing new (apparently even the ancient Romans had a problem with newspapers publishing fluffy stories about the rich and famous). Her central thesis is that the media is not an external “influencing machine”, but is instead a reflection of the society that creates it.
This book was both fun to read and quite informative. Although you might look at the pictures and assume that it is a quick, light book, it really is neither of those things. At times the graphic format was a bit distracting simply because there were so many things to look at on the page, but generally I found the information easier to understand because of the way it was presented. There is also section of references at the back so you can find more information about the topics presented by Gladstone. This is a great overview and introduction to the issues surrounding how we get information from the media (be warned that a few of the pictures are a bit graphic, especially in the section about the media during times of war).
JC
1 comment:
This has been a fascinating book to read, and I feel it’s especially relevant with media coverage of the upcoming 2016 presidential election. The types of media we consume influences the types of media produced, and while this makes sense it’s not something I’ve ever given a lot of thought to.
I was especially fascinated with the exploration of blatant lies and the lack of fact-checking many journalists engage in. This book shows the hows and whys of what contributes to fictional information being reported as fact. I’ve always questioned what’s reported because I know there are many biases at work, and this book gives me the words to be able to describe it. Overall, this is something I would definitely recommend.
ACS
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