 
|
Note: the Amazon and AddAll links are for your convenience only. I'm not a paid affiliate of either service.
Got a book to recommend for these pages? E-mail me.
|
|
|
If you want to get a good hard look at the other side of the media curtain, these books are essential reading. This section is split into five topics. For more information on each book, click the Amazon link to the right. To search and compare prices, Click AddAll.
|
| Books on the News Industry |
|
|
News Flash: Journalism, Infotainment, and the Bottom-Line Business of Broadcast News
Bonnie M. Anderson (2004)
Veteran newswoman from NBC and CNN launches a detailed jeremiad against the megamedia profit motive, specifically how it's destroying good broadcast journalism. Very illuminating book, well-written and well-documented. A must-read for any news junkie.
|
|
|
|
The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril
Leonard Downie, Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser (2002)
Rich, fact-filled account from two top honchos at the Washington Post. Tons of great information on the procedures, economics and politics behind today's primary news venues. Includes interviews with Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Peter Jennings. Highly recommended.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
All the News That's Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information Into News
James T. Hamilton (2004)
An amazingly thorough look at the economics behind the news; how money shapes every decision from the content to the subtext to the stirrers in the coffee room. Fascinating reading. This book helped inspire me to start this very site. I'll be quoting it often.
|
|
|
|
News From Nowhere: Television and the News
Edward Jay Epstein (1973)
For a 31-year old book about a 33-year old study, this analysis of the television news industry is still pretty damn revelant and sometimes eerily prophetic. Kind of like Network. Good reading for freaks like me who can't get enough cultural history.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press
Edited by Kristina Borjesson (2002)
Collection of 18 essays by journalists and media experts that give incredible first-hand testimony about the state of the news today. Essays focus on the media's tendency to self-censor under pressure from government, lawyers and sponsors.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq (An Oral History)
Edited by Bill Katovsky and Timothy Carlson (2003)
Huge feast of first-person narratives—58 in total—by journalists covering the 2003 war. Representatives from every major media outlet, from Fox News to NPR to Al-Jazeera, get their say. This book draws no sweeping conclusions. It just paints an incredibly vivid look at the press in wartime.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
| Books on Media Manipulation |
|
|
Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry
John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton (1995)
If you want to learn the truth about the complex machinations of the PR industry, this is THE quintessential book for you. Filled with facts but told with humor, Stauber and Rampton shed light on everything from Video News Releases to astroturf lobbies. An absolute must-read.
|
|
|
|
Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber (2001)
Beware of shills wearing labcoats. Rampton and Stauber are at it again, but this time they expose the many tricks used by bogus experts and devious flacks to bend science for corporate gain. The book provides countless examples of junk science, some hysterical, others infuriating. Loved it.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us
Benjamin Radford (2003)
From the managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine comes a wide-ranging analysis of media manipulation. Not as fun or focused as the Rampton/Stauber books but Radford offers a lot more insight into the personal and cultural effects of disinformation. And of course he backs up every point with rock-solid research.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Damned Lied and Statistics: Untangling Numbers From the Media, Politicians and Activists
Joel Best (2001)
Powerful little book that deftly illustrates the many ways that numbers are consciously and unconsciously manipulated. You can get through this thing in four hours, but once you do, you'll never trust another poll, survey or study again.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
A Branded World: Adventures in Public Relations and the Creation of Superbrands
Michael Levine (2003)
A very accessible 'how-to' book from one of today's top publicists. Filled with detailed examples and fascinating anecdotes. Great book for anyone who wants to take a non-judgmental look at the twin crafts of PR and branding.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
| Books on Human Manipulation |
|
|
Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say
Douglas Rushkoff (1999)
Renowned media analyst Rushkoff details the many subtle levels in which we're manipulated by publicists, advertisers and marketers. Those magnificent bastards.
|
|
|
|
Media Virus
Douglas Rushkoff (1996)
Ever wonder why some ideas catch on and others don't? So does Rushkoff. Except he tries to explain it and does a damn good job. Seminal work in the exploration of memes.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Age of Propaganda: the Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion
Anthony Pratkanis & Elliot Aronson (2000)
Powerful study of rhetoric, demagoguery, and all other sorts of subliminal sorcery. Ties an analysis of persuasion to almost every major event of the 90s, from Columbine to Monica Lewinsky. This one blew my mind.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
The Culture of Fear
Barry Glassner (1996)
Incredible book on why we gravitate towards fear, how others profit from fear, and why we ultimately fear the wrong things. You might remember this guy from Bowling for Columbine. Book includes much discussion of the news.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Media Control: the Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda
Noam Chomsky (1991, updated 1997)
Chomsky does it again. As usual, he focuses on propaganda in U.S. foreign policy. Great little starter book for newbies to Chomsky. Not for jingoists.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
| Books on Corporate Control of Media |
|
|
The New Media Monopoly
Ben Bagdikian (1983, 2004)
When this book first came out in 1983, people laughed at Bagdikian for his Chicken Little attitude about media consolidation. There were 50 companies controlling the airwaves back then. Now there are six, and nobody's laughing anymore. An amazingly insightful and prescient book. Updated version includes six new chapters.
|
|
|
|
Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times
Robert McChesney (1999)
For those who don't know, Robert McChesney is one of America's foremost media scholars and a crucial leader in the fight for media reform. As such, this book is fat with detail on the multilayered effects of media consolidation, specifically how it undermines democracy in our society. And if you think public television and the Internet are going to save us, McChesney's got a few thousand words for you.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle Against Corporate Media
Robert McChesney and John Nichols (2002)
Think of this as the Cliffs Notes to Rich Media, Poor Democracy. A thinner and more accessible work that effectively highlights the major problems with deregulated media. The final third of the book is devoted to solutions; including several ways to get involved in the struggle to improve the corporate media.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Conglomerates and the Media
Erik Barnouw et al. (1997)
Essays by eight notable authors, scholars and journalists that each delve into a different aspect of the corporate media issue. Richard Cohen's history/analysis of the network news alone is worth the price of the book, but then David Lieberman tops it with a stunning piece on hypermarketing to children. Whoa, daddy.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Megamedia: How Giant Corporations Dominate Mass Media, Distort Competition, and Endanger Democracy
Dean Alger (1998)
If you somehow managed to get through the first four books on this page without falling into a permanent fetal position, then you're ready for Alger. This book covers much of the same ground as McChesney's, but Alger's work is far more accessible to laypeople (tradeoff: it's much less detailed). The chapter on the 1996 Telecommunications Act and its terrible effect on the radio industry is a must-read.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
| Books on Cultural Effects of Media |
|
|
The Power of News
Michael Schudson (1995)
Now this is a rare find: a scholar who argues that we're overestimating the effect of the news media on our general perceptions. Still, he stresses the importance of good journalism and provides a very even-handed look at how media fits in our society. Terrific book.
|
|
|
|
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in an Age of Show Business
Neil Postman (1986)
Although some parts of this work regrettably show their age, the late great Postman was an unparalled master at tapping the vein of modern society. This is arguably his most influental work. It blends history, sociology and philosophy into a thought-provoking study of entertainment's influence on the American mindset. A damn good read.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Life: The Movie
How Entertainment Conqured Reality
Neal Gabler (2000)
News is just a small piece of Gabler's treatise, which beautifully details the many ways in which the fourth wall has broken down in our culture. Judging truth by the laws of fiction is nothing new in society, he argues, but it's radically sped up in today's histrionic age. The book is chock full of darkly amusing examples of life imitating art imitating life.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
The Vanishing Voter: Public Involvement in an Age of Uncertainty
Thomas E. Patterson (2002)
Voter turnout has been steadily declining in America for over 40 years. Patterson, of the Vanishing Voter Project, wonders why. And he interviews over 80,000 people to find out. An amazing yet disturbing look at a democracy that's choking on its own cynicism. And yes, he explains in great detail how the news media add to the problem.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers
Michael Schudson (1978)
Okay, so this one's more about the cultural effects of yesterday's news. But it's still a great read. With vivid prose, Schudson takes us from the birth of the penny press, through the wild days of yellow journalism and into the start of the critical culture. Interesting theories on the role (and myth) of objectivity in reporting.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel
Jean Kilbourne (1997)
This book doesn't have much to do with the news, but it's so damn good I recommend it to everyone. Advertising's just another big piece of the puzzle and Kilbourne breaks it down better than anyone else I've read. Get it.
|
Amazon
|
|
|
|
