Review: The Influencing Machine

In her short graphic booklet The Influencing Machine, Brooke Gladstone concludes that we get the media we deserve. But Gladstone doesn't explicitly argue towards this point. Rather, she argues that reporters are mostly well meaning professionals subject to their own weaknesses and common institutional biases. In The Influencing Machine, Gladstone reveals these biases, and she catalogs ugly moments in media history, cites different views on media responsibility, and discusses consumer habits.

But in acknowledging that PR firms work the media on behalf of political-private interests, and that mainstream media is under a larger corporate thumb, and that journalists and editors, driven by competition between media outlets for markets, reshape and spin news, Gladstone concludes in error. Journalism can involve acts of heroism, but usually it unfolds somewhere between irresponsible stenography and political-private interest promotion--neither of which are for, by, or of the people.

My thinking on media criticism means that I have expectations for what I should see when I consume news and media. In other words, the product is already written in my mind before I seek out mainstream media's interpretation. I realize that. But Gladstone's careless "media is a reflection of society" summation whitewashes the matter. The Influencing Machine is PR for journalism in an age when people don't trust journalism because the line between journalism and PR has faded.