A review by angelofthe0dd
Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday
4.0
A really eye-opening book! This book is basically about the "fake news industry" that has replaced traditional print journalism. One important take-away from this book is that we really can't go back to real, authentic journalism without paying for printed newspapers. It was the sales figures of the old papers that determined how successful a paper was, and most papers honestly attempted to maintain a level of journalistic integrity.
Having headlines on the internet completely changes how news is paid for - through clicks. It's because of this business model that the object of journalism is to get as many clicks as possible, with journalistic integrity taking a far back seat (if any seat at all). Anyone over 30 yrs old today would likely remember seeing numerous gossip tabloids in supermarket checkout lanes with headlines like "The Dark Secrets of Happy Days" or "Is President Bush Planning to Nuke Russia?". Of course only a complete moron would believe such obvious trash, but enough people bought into them that tabloid journalism did flourish for quite some time.
Fast-forward to today and headlines that *used to be* only only tabloid papers are now so ubiquitous as to have just about completely replaced honest, genuine journalism. Today's headlines aren't written by keen journalists with a network of inside sources and a nose for hot stories. Instead they're written by armies of poorly-paid hacks that churn out as much sensationalist BS as they can each day. The more clicks their headlines get, the better for the site hosting the headlines.
The author also goes into some of the psychological tricks the writers use to make the headlines being churned out almost sound like a genuine story.
Having headlines on the internet completely changes how news is paid for - through clicks. It's because of this business model that the object of journalism is to get as many clicks as possible, with journalistic integrity taking a far back seat (if any seat at all). Anyone over 30 yrs old today would likely remember seeing numerous gossip tabloids in supermarket checkout lanes with headlines like "The Dark Secrets of Happy Days" or "Is President Bush Planning to Nuke Russia?". Of course only a complete moron would believe such obvious trash, but enough people bought into them that tabloid journalism did flourish for quite some time.
Fast-forward to today and headlines that *used to be* only only tabloid papers are now so ubiquitous as to have just about completely replaced honest, genuine journalism. Today's headlines aren't written by keen journalists with a network of inside sources and a nose for hot stories. Instead they're written by armies of poorly-paid hacks that churn out as much sensationalist BS as they can each day. The more clicks their headlines get, the better for the site hosting the headlines.
The author also goes into some of the psychological tricks the writers use to make the headlines being churned out almost sound like a genuine story.