The news
Subtitle: a user's manual
By: Alain de Botton
Edition: First American edition.
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 268
ISBN-13: 9780307379122
Subjects: Social aspects; Political aspects; Journalism; Mass media; News audiences
Description: The news is everywhere. We can't stop constantly checking it on our computes, but what is this doing to our minds? We are never really taught how to make sense of the torrent of news we face every day, writes Alain de Botton, but this has a huge impact on our sense of what matters and of how we should lead our lives. Here, de Botton takes twenty-five archetypal news stories--including an airplane crash, a murder, a celebrity interview and a political scandal--and submits them to unusually intense analysis with a view to helping us navigate our news-soaked age. He raises such questions as: Why are disaster stories often so uplifting? What makes the love lives of celebrities so interesting? Why do we enjoy watching politicians being brought down? Why are upheavals in far-off lands often so boring? De Botton has written the ultimate guide for our frenzied era, certain to bring calm, understanding and a measure of sanity to our daily (perhaps even hourly) interactions with the news machine.--From publisher description.
Notes: "Originally published in Great Britain by Hamish Hamilton"--Title-page verso.

Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Preface; title: Politics; title: World news; title: Economics; title: Celebrity; title: Disaster; title: Consumption; title: Conclusion.