Social Media Through a
Comic Book Manifesto
By Ashleigh Fergus
The
Influencing Machine
Authored
by: Brooke Gladstone; Illustrated by: Josh Neufeld
181
pages
Published
by W. W. Norton & Company
$16.95
USA
As
the comic book superhero, Spiderman, once said, “With great power comes great
responsibility.” And Brooke
Gladstone
believes the same to be true in the social media world.
The Influencing Machine, by Brooke Gladstone and
illustrated by Josh Neufeld, is a graphic novel that guides the reader through social media
history and theory. I found this book to be very informative and entertaining,
and even though the graphics provide great detail and commentary. It also
distracts the reader from the message.
Gladstone
states numerous times throughout the book that it is impossible for anyone in a
media coverage profession to be objective because of each individual’s personal
skewed views. Instead, she suggests that anyone involved in the social media
profession should be more focused on being fair to the public.
“News
consumers say they want objectivity, but they choose news outlets that reflect their views.
Personal information about reporters is irrelevant, until they run afoul of
those views. Then it becomes ammunition.” (Pg.115)
Photo Credit: By Sofia Peresoa
(Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via
Wikimedia Commons
The
main focus of this book is to guide the readers through the convolutions of the
media. I would not recommend this book to anyone who would want to
enjoy a little bit of light reading. A communications course or some sort of
required reading would best use the purpose of this book for anyone interested
in a media profession.
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