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enclose9698's review
No longer relevant in today's day and age with splintered internet media
nightchough's review
2.0
enjoyed some of his earlier books, heard an interview, in retrospect could have just left it there; this book started off interesting, but it got predictable (art is good! modern capitalism has widespread inequality!) and I had to force myself to finish. the conclusion is an adequate précis for the whole book.
all that said - still contains some good insights, e.g.
* international news ideally would stimulate interest in the culture and geography of other countries, whereas it's typically just violence, disease and disasters
* corollary: can we have more media coverage of positive things, in general, and less fear-mongering?
all that said - still contains some good insights, e.g.
* international news ideally would stimulate interest in the culture and geography of other countries, whereas it's typically just violence, disease and disasters
* corollary: can we have more media coverage of positive things, in general, and less fear-mongering?
ajreader's review
3.0
Read my full thoughts on this book and hundreds more over at Read.Write.Repeat.
Alain de Botton's guide to the news is informative and interesting, though I was hoping for actual guidance about how to move forward.
Alain de Botton's guide to the news is informative and interesting, though I was hoping for actual guidance about how to move forward.
cd1310's review against another edition
2.0
One day late! Picked this book at Kramerbooks back in the summer and it took me until January to truly start reading it. Wasn't quite what I was expecting but I'm happy I added more non-fiction. Alain de Botton is a very direct writer and had some great lines of truth, but overall I was just waiting to finish.
jcarrcatzel's review
2.0
Liked Alain's turn of phrase, like his School of Life videos. Refreshing to read a view from someone outside the industry. But some arguments were trivial, didn't quite hold up. And a lot of what Alain suggested journalism ought to do and achieve is already done in longer-form, photojournalism etc. Nevertheless interesting to analyse the psychological drives behind what we seek in the news, what gratifies or torments us. And important to step back and allow time for independent thought, for introspection. It was mostly a critique of daily news journalism, the 24 hour news cycle. I'm not sure how we revise and revolutionise the model, quality journalism is very much there - we just don't have time for it.
shallowdepths's review
2.0
I agree with many of the issues presented about mainstream news, but this book has a specific, narrow vision of both what news is and what it should be. It shows limited understanding of how the news landscape has changed, and how and why people take in information. Also perhaps a limited view of art.
I disagree with almost every sentence containing the word "should" (there are a lot of them).
I disagree with almost every sentence containing the word "should" (there are a lot of them).