The News: A User's Manual Author: Alain De Botton | Language: English | ISBN:
B00EMX9Q4W | Format: PDF
The News: A User's Manual Description
The news is everywhere. We can’t stop constantly checking it on our computer screens, but what is this doing to our minds?
We are never really taught how to make sense of the torrent of news we face every day, writes Alain de Botton (author of the best-selling
The Architecture of Happiness), but this has a huge impact on our sense of what matters and of how we should lead our lives. In his dazzling new book, de Botton takes twenty-five archetypal news stories—including an airplane crash, a murder, a celebrity interview and a political scandal—and submits them to unusually intense analysis with a view to helping us navigate our news-soaked age. He raises such questions as Why are disaster stories often so uplifting? What makes the love lives of celebrities so interesting? Why do we enjoy watching politicians being brought down? Why are upheavals in far-off lands often so boring?
In
The News: A User’s Manual, de Botton has written the ultimate guide for our frenzied era, certain to bring calm, understanding and a measure of sanity to our daily (perhaps even hourly) interactions with the news machine.
(With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)
From the Hardcover edition.- File Size: 2599 KB
- Print Length: 272 pages
- Publisher: Pantheon (February 11, 2014)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00EMX9Q4W
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,215 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Journalism - #13
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Media Studies - #28
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Popular Culture
- #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Journalism - #13
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Media Studies - #28
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Popular Culture
The News: A User's Manual provides us with a fresh look at a familiar topic. Most of us consume quantities of news without ever asking why and what for. Such unreflected practice is likely to harbor surprises. de Botton takes the various topics of mainstream news and dissects them for us, showing us why we are right to find them fascinating, pointing out how their current manifestations may hide unseen dangers, and suggesting ways in which media organizations could forge a more constructive path.
His analysis is sharp and his idealism is realistic (that's not a contradiction in terms!). "The news" possesses an enormous influence over how we see our communities, how we see ourselves, and what we believe is possible. Right now, the news is doing a terrible job on all counts. That needn't be the case. de Botton shows us what is broken and gives us inspiration to imagine a media ecosystem that allows each of us to lead better lives. Let's hope a few brave souls take these ideas to heart.
(Disclaimer: I've read most of Alain de Botton's work. I'm inclined to think he's a helpful guide to navigating contemporary dilemmas.)
By Benjamin Smith
"We are never really taught how to make sense of the torrent of news we face every day, but this has a huge impact on our sense of what matters and of how we should lead our lives…" This smart, edifying and beautifully written "what now?" little book brings fresh perspective to our love-hate relationships with the daily torrent of news and what our 24/7 access to it is "doing to our minds," communities, politics, economics, etc. De Botton offers real life examples and actionable "help with what the news is doing to us: with the envy and the terror, with the excitement and the frustration; with all that we've been told and yet occasionally suspect we may be better off never having learned." "The great goal of the Enlightenment has been achieved: the average citizen now has near-instantaneous access to information about events in every nation on earth. But we've also been forced to something rather more surprising: no one is particularly interested... The condition actually afflicting audiences differs slightly from the one diagnosed by the news establishment: they are in truth suffering not so much from ignorance as from indifference."
By Byron Reimus
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