The Influencing Machine
鈥淚 wanted to write a comic book long before I wanted to write a book about the media,鈥� Brooke Gladstone explains in The Influencing Machine, her new book about the news business. The host of NPR鈥檚 鈥淥n the Media,鈥� Gladstone makes what could have been a chewy book on media theory 鈥� snooze 鈥� more fun with the help of something unavailable at her day job: pictures.
鈥淚 thought writing in bubbles would be easier, more like radio,鈥� Gladstone writes. 鈥淚t was more like radio, but it wasn鈥檛 easier.鈥�
Although writing it wasn鈥檛 easier for the radio host, 鈥淭he Influencing Machine鈥� will prove easier on her readers than most of the inside-baseball navel-gazing done by media personalities. As digital publishing buries newspapers and books, writers either wax nostalgic for dead trees (like former Sunday Times editor Harold Evans in his memoir 鈥淢y Paper Chase鈥�) or drool over the possibilities of the Internet age (like Cory Doctorow, publisher of the tech blog BoingBoing, who blurbed 鈥淭he Influencing Machine鈥�).
Gladstone, more level-headed, charts a middle course.
鈥淓verything we hate about the media today was present at its creation,鈥� she writes. 鈥淎lso present was everything we admire 鈥� and require 鈥� from the media: factual information, penetrating analysis, probing investigation, truth spoken to power. Same as it ever was.鈥�
Of course, as any newspaper editor will tell you, 鈥淪ame as it ever was鈥� isn鈥檛 a great headline. 鈥淭he Influencing Machine鈥� doesn鈥檛 break new ground. Starting with ancient Guatemala, where she says Mayan scribes wrote 鈥減rimordial P.R.,鈥� Gladstone takes us through touchstones familiar to any Journalism 101 student: the explosion of newspapers after the American Revolution, William Randolph Hearst鈥檚 yellow journalism, Watergate, and the invasion of Iraq. She also offers tired Jon Stewartesque gripes about partisan cable-news bloviators.
Here鈥檚 where the illustrations help. Josh Neufeld, veteran illustrator of topical graphic novels such as 鈥淎.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge鈥� and 鈥�9-11: Emergency Relief,鈥� makes Gladstone鈥檚 arguments about, for example, the unreliability of polls, more memorable. Poll-hating isn鈥檛 novel 鈥� John Allen Paulos, for one, outlined arguments against surveys almost 20 years ago in 鈥淎 Mathematician Reads the Newspaper.鈥� Still, it鈥檚 easier to wade through a statistical discussion accompanied by Gladstone鈥檚 curly-haired avatar, which Neufeld supplies with a Sherlock Holmes cap and magnifying glass in one panel where she takes on NBC鈥檚 Chris Hansen.
Hansen, host of 鈥�To Catch a Predator鈥� 鈥� horrifying infotainment that, as one judge ruled, entrapped would-be statutory rapists by soliciting them on the Web 鈥� cited law enforcement officers in 2005 to claim 鈥�50,000 predators are online at any given moment.鈥� Then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales even cited the number in a speech. Gladstone, however, was dubious.
鈥淸The number] 50,000 is a death magnet,鈥� she writes. 鈥淓very year 50,000 die in road accidents ... and from secondhand smoke ... and from trans-fats in America.... What鈥檚 the deal?鈥� After talking to Hansen鈥檚 source, she learns that the figure was, essentially, a guess-timate.
鈥淚t was a Goldilocks number,鈥� Hansen鈥檚 statistician tells her. 鈥淣ot too hot, not too cold.鈥� Gladstone thinks that such poor journalism, whether motivated by laziness or outright bias, is common. 鈥淪ometimes the simplest reasons are the scariest,鈥� she writes.
Without offering excessive hyperbole about the promises of the Digital Age (see: any paper that enthuses about 鈥渃itizen journalists鈥� while offering multiple buyouts to its newsroom), Gladstone makes a solid case that more democratic access to information improves news.
Though, regrettably, she鈥檚 doesn鈥檛 say much about WikiLeaks, she praises cellphone images of Iranian upheaval after a contested election in 2009 and websites such as data.gov that let normal folks find and report stories.
鈥淗ow can we ensure that our development as moral and social animals keeps pace with our rapidly evolving communications technology?鈥� she asks. 鈥淏y playing an active role in our media consumption.鈥�
It shouldn鈥檛 be news to Gladstone that publishing empires are desperately trying not to go broke while hoping to make readers more active. And older, less easily digestible books 鈥� Marshall McLuhan鈥檚 鈥�Medium is the Message鈥� and Roland Barthes鈥檚 鈥淢ythologies鈥� 鈥� better describe the 21st century鈥檚 media disease. Still, Gladstone gets points for offering some solutions and staying positive.
鈥淚 am generally a dark individual, but I think this is a great time to be alive,鈥� she writes. In 2012 鈥� 40 years after Woodward and Bernstein started writing about a break-in at a Washington, D.C., office complex 鈥� that鈥檚 great to hear.
Justin Moyer is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.
