Are the Media Controlling Our Minds?

Book Title: The Influencing Machine

Author: Brooke Gladstone; Illustrated by: Josh Neufeld

Length: 181 pages

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Price: $16.95 USD

By Maggie Bowker

Are the Media Controlling Our Minds?

From print journalist to media analyst to co-host and managing editor of National Public Radio’s (NPR) newsmagazine, On the Media, Brooke Gladstone is a woman who wears many hats, so to speak. One of her many skills includes authoring the New York Times Bestseller, The Influencing Machine. 

Photo Credit: http://lmnopolitics.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/brooke_gladstone_fb_wdet_leadin_thumb.jpg

The Influencing Machine provides a unique perspective on the media, however, the way the book is created is a unique element in itself. Gladstone collaborated with illustrator Josh Neufeld to create The Influencing Machine in a comic book style. This makes the information-filled book an enjoyable, understandable and quick read. 

In her book, Gladstone aims to offer an understanding of the media from her personal perspective. She addresses the issues of people’s perceptions of the media and argues that they are not completely accurate because today’s media is hugely  consumer driven. She says that people don’t understand media all the time because they really need to see a reflection of their personal values and priorities. Gladstone says the media is usually favorable in the eyes of the public during times of national panic and disaster because they see the sympathetic news coverage during these times and feel that the media was expressing their pain. 

Photo Credit: http://visionblocks.org/Funhouse-Mirror.jpg?1349474855

Gladstone describes today’s media as a funhouse mirror in that it has some flaws, and distorted views in the way that people perceive it. She also addresses the biases of the media and touches on her problem with objectivity and why it may not be the best tactic for journalism, in her opinion.                     

I enjoyed reading Gladstone’s perspective on today’s media and I feel like I gained more insight to perceptions of the media that I had previously taken for granted. Also, the comic book style makes it a fun and humorous read!

What Media Do You Deserve?

By: Laila Wani   

         "We get the media we deserve."At least this is what Brooke Gladstone argues in her book “The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media”. Media consumers are content with hearing news from journalists whose views mirror their own. A conflict in opinion makes the consumers uncomfortable and angry, but can’t seem to make them think. And with social media, many journalists can voice their opinions, no mater how radical they may be.

            Many people complain about modern media, saying they miss the honest days. But the old days are ones of Yellow Journalism and other giant missteps. This is not to say that the media of today is something to admire. We are now cluttered with professional bloggers, or people who are free to give extremely biased versions of the news, often not worrying about the truth. But modern media also allow those without voices to tell their side of a story. So news now is what it has always been, a mix of the good with the bad.

           Gladstone’s expertise on the subject is rooted in her start as a print journalist. Writing on everything from strip-mining to music reviews, the now managing editor of NPR’s On The Media, has dabbled in a little bit of everything.

           Gladstone gives her view on the state of the media in a fascinating fashion. The graphic novel style of the book, with illustrations from Josh Neufeld, makes some of the history lessons easier to digest. Some sentences may need to be read more than once if your language isn’t as elevated as Gladstone’s, but that shouldn’t make anyone shy away from the book. It is a good read for all, as we are all consumers of media.

Gladstone's Biography

A Slightly Different View

Another Rave Review

An Interview with the Author and the Illustrator

So Long, Passivity

by Marissa DuBois

The Influencing Machine

Authored by: Brooke Gladstone; Illustrated by: Josh Neufeld

181 pages

Published by W. W. Norton & Company

$16.95 USA

     The coffee pours, breakfast sits on the table and the news echoes throughout the kitchen every morning. My family has spent every morning and evening around the kitchen table listening to NBC. The new has fed us our daily supply of information, trends, and scope of reality. Now I wonder how much that has influenced who I am today… 

   “ Everything we hate about the media today was present at its creation”

–      The Influencing Machine

‘Influencing Machine” photo credit: (http://www.wbur.org/npr/161294597/what-the-influencing-machine-teaches-college-kids)

              Brooke Gladstone interprets the media as our main source of influence, but communicates a desire for us to reject passivity in return. Let’s consider how we can be influential in return. We, too, are the sculptors of the media.

Brooke Gladstone, co-host and editor of NPR’s On the Media, has long worked in the field of journalism. Gladstone working as a media analyst authored The Influencing Machine. In an interview with The New York Observer, Gladstone described the book as a “a treatise between us and the news media.” Gladstone explained the concept in the interview as the psychological idea that some external device controls our thoughts and emotions.

As a visual person - and not so much reader - I found myself immersed into a story of an evolving yet, ever-present media world. Unlike a simple story and words, Brooke Gladstone’s voice in The Influencing Machine transcends the author/reader barrier by incorporating imagery and words into a comic book. Gladstone’s perspective, as a journalist, was refreshing and empowering.

   Gladstone recreates a 2,000-year history of the media through detailed visual presentation that illuminates how the media got where they are, where they're going, and how the influence they project onto consumers matter. Gladstone unearths the media’s fight for objectivity. Gladstone addressed these ideas: is objectivity even achieved? Strived for? What kinds of biases are there? And what is with this prejudicing?

“Objective-Journalism” (Missouri Communication) Photo credit: (http://missouricommunication.wordpress.com/tag/objectivity/ )

            The process that The Influencing Machine takes you on helps to determine Gladstone also demonstrated that there is a tendency of prejudice in us all. Take the Implicit test online to determine your inclination to prejudices. We all have it in us.

I recommend The Influencing Machine as a particularly fond read for those who question the media, those who are intrigued by the media, and especially for students studying media.