Book review by Nancy Mehegan
Book Review: "Trust Me I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator" by Ryan Holiday
Pageview Journalism
Ryan Holiday exposes the current media as one mainly focused on making money. Truth has fallen by the wayside. In our digital age stories are not corraborated or checked for accuracy.
And the author took advantage of this loophole, planting fictitious stories for his clients. The stories were passed up the "digital food chain" and gained the status of "truth", eventually printed in the mainstream media.
It's all about Clicks. Website traffic drives advertisers to pay for ads.
Shoddy Journalism
The blog world is rapid and ravenous for stories. Few take the time to check accuracy. Headlines blare at us. The media powers use the baser human emotions of anger, fear and titillation over reason. Recognized media such as "The Huffington Post" are one of the participants. The affiliate sites of major media such as The Wall Street Journal are not monitored carefully. SmartMoney.com is one of these affiliates and does not meet the normal higher standards of the WSJ.
It's a troubling, shoddy world of journalism. The author is quite candid about his own sins, and perhaps his conscience drove him to write the book. It's a funny, well written, informative book. Anyone interested in media should read this book -- the venerable old trustworthiness of the media such as The New York Times is a mere memory.
note: this book was provided to Vaboomer by the publisher for review.
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