Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
Ratings26
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings26
Average rating3.8
You've seen it all before. A malicious online rumor costs a company millions. A political sideshow derails the national news cycle and destroys a candidate. Some product or celebrity zooms from total obscurity to viral sensation. What you don't know is that someone is responsible for all this. Usually, someone like me.
I'm a media manipulator. In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs-as much as any one person can.
In today's culture...
1) Blogs like Gawker, Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post drive the media agenda.
2) Bloggers are slaves to money, technology, and deadlines.
3) Manipulators wield these levers to shape everything you read, see and watch-online and off.
Why am I giving away these secrets? Because I'm tired of a world where blogs take indirect bribes, marketers help write the news, reckless journalists spread lies, and no one is accountable for any of it. I'm pulling back the curtain because I don't want anyone else to get blindsided.
I'm going to explain exactly how the media really works. What you choose to do with this information is up to you.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Reviews with the most likes.
3.5.
It was great, and really took the lid off of how/why social and digital media generally operates. How the blogs we get are a product of the medium, a medium which prioritises page-views over anything else.
Got a bit repetitive toward the end, and I found myself saying ‘Yada yada yada' a lot whilst I skimmed (lots of repetition - we get it, blogs are dogs). But really important. ESP. The quick summary in the chapter ‘how to read a blog'
‘You can't have your news instantly and for it to be high quality and truthful' (or something along those lines)
Yahoo
I was afraid that this book might denounce a huge inexistent conspiracy theory but it didn't. Instead, the author manages to demonstrate step by step how the blogosphere can be hacked and what's the result of so much hacking. A very informative book that might get read a second time !
Absolute must read! Media system right now is completely broken and this book shows how on real examples. Terrifying. I don't even know what else to write - YOU MUST READ THIS!
