If you like: On the Media, Joe Sacco, Economix.
Lately, I’m suspicious of anyone who says “the media.”
Sure, media is a family, all related through mass communication, but have you ever tried to organize a big family meal like Thanksgiving? Everyone has a different schedule, travel arrangements to make, different food preferences, allergies, cooking expertise, etc.
That’s why I like Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld’s The Influencing Machine. It sees the patterns, but also recognizes “the media” for the big, complex thing it is.
It’s been awhile since I’ve picked up my copy from 2011, and the question was: Does it still hold up in a field that feels like it’s changing by the minute?
It really does. Even though 9/11 and the Iraq War are top of mind in the discussion, and this is before “fake news” and asking ourselves what to do about Facebook, the history and theory stand up well. In fact, some of what she writes about we’re just catching up to today.
If you want a breakdown to better understand the media, this is a great pick. Gladstone’s central metaphor is “the influencing machine,” the name for a mental trick common in people with schizophrenia to disassociate themselves from thoughts they are uncomfortable with. They blame an outside machine, when of course, it’s all coming from inside their own head.
And that’s Gladstone’s point about media. It’s not an outside force trying to control people -- it is people.
"The Constitution makes no distinction between the speech of a fractious, self-interested, fitfully heroic people and its fractious, self-interested, fitfully heroic press. That's because there never really was a distinction…"
It addresses the history, how technology has changed, studies on how people process information and the future. There’s a chunk on bias, too, that’s interesting. Gladstone says the argument over political bias is so simple, it’s boring, then lists the bias you should be worried about. She looks at a couple different theories on objectivity, including Lipmann’s statement that it is more of a process than a state of mind, a distinction I think the general public doesn’t always get.
The business model is what’s top of my mind right now, so that’s what stuck out to me in this reading.
The good news: in 1833, print newspapers found a model that opened it up to the general public and out of financial control from deep-pocketed political parties. The bad news: that model hasn’t really changed since 1833, even as technology changed mass communication.
If in 2011 Gladstone saw a slowly increasing willingness for people to pay for some information online, we can confirm the “slowly.” (The Coloradoan put it nicely)
Although, there are some things that don’t change, and that’s what’s especially interesting about The Influencing Machine.
From the new model in 1833: “The content changed, too: more local politics, more crime, more drama, more scoops. News is a commodity like bread. Freshness matters. Inaccuracy -- like this balloon hoax, penned by Edgar Allen Poe -- doesn’t.”
So it’s not a new problem to digital publishing, and good journalists will always have to juggle speed and accuracy.
And remember that book about whether Google is making people stupid? That was so 2011, but Gladstone makes a good case for staying calm in the face of technological change (looking at you, Dave Eggers’ Circle).
“Actually, I’m not creeped out, and not because I’m especially optimistic about human nature. I just take my cues from history. And the history of communication is full of...histrionics.”
Let me tell you, those Victorians were right, and it all went downhill when they started to let girls read.
I should probably also address how this is a graphic novel illustrated by a comics journalist and written by a radio journalist.
It’s not the first nonfiction graphic novel I’ve read, but it’s the first one that’s an essay, not a story.
It works well in illustrating abstract ideas. I also wonder if having to storyboard the book helped Gladstone in making the progression of ideas as smooth as it is.
"The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media" written by Brooke Gladstone and illustrated by Josh Neufeld; W. W. Norton & Company; May 2011.
Comments