4. Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan HolidayMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Highly recommended reading for anyone (old enough to understand it).
The book is divided into two parts. The first details the strategies he used to manipulate the media with real world examples. The second covers the consequences when it gets out of hand, which it inevitably will either by someone else's design or not, also with actual examples.
I knew some of the ways the news gets manipulated nowadays, but Holiday provides a thoughtful, thorough insider's look at the topic with historical context. It's depressing how easy it is to manufacture completely false news with no repercussions.
To help yourself spot the lingo of unsubstantiated claims and uncorroborated stories, read this book. If you decide to read it to learn media exploitation, be sure to read the whole book so you understand the blowback you'll get.
Blog note: I checked this book out because Holiday is coming to Creative Live next month to teach a course on Smart PR for Artists, Entrepreneurs, and Small Businesses. After reading his book, I'm not sure what I would want to apply from it, but I'm curious to see what he has to say.
Also, in the book he says RSS is dead. I recognize the signs he mentions (removing it from browsers URL fields as an option, shifting it off Google's top page services), but if Google ever ditches their reader, I'm going to be reading a lot less. I don't see myself going back to the days of checking many sites individually every day.
3 years ago on TTaT: The tallest I've ever been
Your comment about RSS turned out to be rather prescient didn't it?
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Ryan! I was just commenting on what you wrote, so I won't claim any prescience. I will, however, be looking for a new feed reader. Fortunately, there are still some other options.
DeleteDoing away with RSS entirely seems very counterintuitive to me as I will read far less online if that happens. Upside is that I'll get through more books.