The News: A User's Manual (2014)

Book Info

Author

Alain de Botton

Genre

Nonfiction

Rating

3.44 of 5 Votes: 3

Your rating

ISBN

0307379124 (ISBN13: 9780307379122)

Language

English

Publisher

Pantheon

Shops

Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble

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About book The News: A User's Manual (2014)

de Botton opening is forceful and dynamic. He makes some seriously interesting observations and asks some hard-hitting questions which strike the reader directly. That is all wonderful.When he begins to analyse different aspects of news, e.g. writing style and photography, for me the book became a bit slower and less engaging. Overall, for me the first 2-3 chapters were already worth it. It's a good book. I should start with admitting that I probably bought this book in search of an opinion similar to mine.What I expected was an elaboration on the role of the media and society, especially in its interaction with contemporary democracy which sometimes seems to be based on populism and desinformation.The reason I give this a mediocre rating only is because the book doesn't really present a deep analyses, especially in the second half which takes angles which I don't find relevant (celebrities etc.).