The News: A User's Manual

I have read and enjoyed most of Alain de Botton's books, but I loved this one. When I saw the title, I wondered whether I would get much out of it - I mean, how can one get much of a philosophical challenge out of the daily news? Well, I felt enthralled and challenged from page one, This book made me think about the very way I take in my daily doses of news, and it has already changed my behavior. Furthermore, de Botton has made me think about how news could operate more effectively to help improve the lives of people on the planet. It has lead to a number of stimulating discussions with friends and provided perspectives that none of us have considered before. Highly recommended.

Reading De Botton is like visiting a monastery, the beautiful sentences flow gradually, the thoughtful and peaceful architecture of the book is revealed and the reader discovers all sorts of insights he never thought of. Having said this, I quickly add that I do not agree with many of De Botton's Utopian prescriptions for a more enlightening world of news. As long as he dissects why we spend so much time with the news, he is marvelous at revealing our foibles. When he becomes a philosopher who wishes that our daily ingestion of news serve to better us, to teach us the good life, to improve our awareness of the real world, his prescriptions are not good sociology. For example, when he suggests the news writer manipulate his material to make it more artistic and therefore more educative (page 82), he inadvertently tangos with a prescription for propaganda. So the central question of this review remains: should you read this book? By all means. De Botton is a very gifted writer, consequently you always learn from him. Like your visit to a marvelously preserved monastery, you may not want to take the vows, but the visit enriches you.

I saw an interview with Alain de Botton on TV and I was immediately intrigued by the book. I ordered a copy right away. The first few chapters were interesting and the author-philospher definitely makes his point well. His ideas about the news and how it influences our society are fresh and original. But pretty soon he reverts to repeating the same theories in every chapter. In one chapter he puts forward the point of how important it is to have role models and people held in high esteem by the media, in the very next chapter he knocks the fact that we're such a celebrity obsessed society - contradicting what he said previously. I'm glad I read the book but it was dissapointing towards the end.

As someone that is suffering from “infoxication” on a daily basis, I picked up Alain’s book hoping to get both an explanation and a different perspective on why I’m more and more unable to care about the stream of information that hits me every hour. Now that I've finished reading, it has fulfilled my expectations completely, with the addition of providing some hints and advice on how the news should change in the way they deliver facts to us. I am now seeing things related to the news system from a slight different perspective than before, but that subtle change has greatly reduced the stress I was feeling before. Alain’s revision of how the news are deliver to us and his analysis of the flaws of that delivery has been very refreshing, in the sense that once you see some of his explanations it becomes evident why you felt like you did, and at the same time it’s been motivating to try and consume information in other ways and with different perspective than before. For some areas, it even has been a relief and a excuse why I shouldn’t be bothered to grasp what’s going on every hour or so. The book is divided in chapters which mirror the usual sections you find in a newspaper to group news together: Foreign Affaires, Celebrities, Economics, etc. In each, the author uses real life examples to make his point and ends with a recommendation on how news could be improved in that specific section. The language is sometimes so rich that it can be a bit hard to follow for a non-english person like me, so certain pieces need a second read. Apart from that, I’ve enjoyed the book very much and do recommend it to others interested in information consumption.

I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news is you'll come away wondering if you should ever believe anything you read in the news again. The good news is you'll be better prepared to interpret whatever news you choose to read. There are subjects De Botton covers where you'll probably find yourself saying, "Eh, I don't know about that," but overall he shows how the various sections of newspapers/magazines; e.g., political, business are designed to convey their message. One of the more interesting things to me personally was his statement that bias in reporting is not always a bad thing, that if you know the bias of a particular news organization, you can learn to interpret it and decide whether or not that bias is correct or not, depending on your own bias of course. <g>

Part critique and part philosophy, Mr. Botton has given us plenty of defenses against profit driven, and therefore mercenary news. He says that uncritical viewing of, or listening to, or reading the news can have unintended negative impacts on our well being and view of ourselves. For instance, the coverage of a billionaire might list his lofty attainments and not deal with the hard work, setbacks and foolishness that led to them. This might bring you to ask "what is wrong with me?," that I'm such a loser. You're not, of course, but if you are led to make the comparison, you're bound to come up wanting. The whole point of the book is that the purveyors of news, in the interests of -interest- and brevity don't feel duty bound to consider the effects of their trade, so it's up to us to be aware, and protect ourselves. This book helps. And it's also a good read and an interesting format.

It is amazing how many profound insights and topics De Botton reaches in this brief volume. I would never have imagined how far he goes in tying life and philosophy to our daily news, but he does so most convincingly and touchingly. This is the fourth of his books I have read and it is both the easiest reading and perhaps the deepest yet. I will recommend it to many different sorts of reading friends.

Continuing my consumption of Alain de Botton non-fictions brings me his book called "The News". Essentially a philosophical take on how the news came about along with its importance and impact on population. De Botton as per usual takes you on a journey through the various facets of a newspaper such as politics, economy, world news, celebrity, disaster etc. He provides many examples and demonstrates the both conscious and subconscious impacts do the way behave in both the short term and long term. It certainly wasn't one of the best de Botton books that I have read. However, given I'm a big consumer of written news, it was interesting to challenge my beliefs and reactions to the written word in tabloids and determine whether I should read it differently going forward. A user manual indeed! Three key takeaways from the book: 1. Two emotions in which we’re likely to become extremely well acquainted the longer we spend with the news are fear and anger. 2. For all their talk of education, modern societies neglect to examine by far the most influential means by which their populations are educated; the news. 3. The impulse to admire is an ineradicable and important feature of our psyches. Ignoring or condemning it won’t kill it off; it will simply force it underground, where it will lurk untended and undeveloped, prone to latch on to inappropriate targets. Rather than try to suppress our love of celebrity, we ought to channel it in optimally intelligent and fruitful directions.

con le due edizioni, in italiano e in inglese, imparo la lingua. de botton conosciuto con le CONSOLAZIONI DELLA FILOSOFIA. BUONA LETTURA.

News a Users Manual is part of Alain de Botton's sublime philosophical survey of the modern world and how to exist in it and even be amused by it. He's done workplaces and art and love and now he is doing the News. I am addicted to the news like everyone else and yet I find this blizzard of information exhausting and confusing and often somewhat painful; and there is far too much of it and alot of it is unnecessary. So its a wonderful idea to write a guide, a users manual to understanding, analysing and navigating this constant flow, avalanche, this blizzard, this cannonade of information that bombards us at all times. but this book is much more than that. I have read the de Botton books since he started - first the novels of love then the Proustian and philosophical books - and I always relish his voice and his original approach. I am an author myself and I know a lot about how the news is made but I have found so many ideas and concepts and facts in this book that I hadn't known before or more often approaches I hadn't thought of. And so I especially relished not just the cleverness of the writing, the bon motes but its exceptional originality - no one else does it like this. This is a guide to modern living and I think the fun of this is that de Botton is gradually writing a body of work that should be published in one big volume on how to live in the 21st century. As always with de Botton, it is witty, its playful, its very unpolitically correct, its full of wisdom, whimsy and unusual facts but also its full of common sense and wry knowledge of the world. To read de Botton the only thing you need is a sense of humour - the sense of fun is never absent and there is usually a smile behind even his most grave pronouncements. We all know there is something of the philosopher about de Botton but there is also something of the investigative reporter: he is interested not just in the slick vapidity of the news flow itself but also the sweaty rush of the newsroom where the news is decided by people who often know nothing of the place or the event they are covering. I don't often write reviews on amazon but I so enjoyed this that I couldn't resist reviewing it here. De Botton's News is brilliant, original, mischievious and funny - this is essential reading for anyone who is living in the 21st Century and wishes to enjoy it and even survive it.

Another de Botton: His painful and cheerful way of giving answers to the question “why”. No matter at which point you are in your life, it helps you to prioritize. Just make sure you read properly, thoroughly. Let the sentences sink in. When you find yourself ducking under your chair or table for laughter, get up and read the sentence again. And switch off the news channel(s).

For a news junkie like myself, it's edifying and entertaining to take a pause and actually think about the purpose and nature of news itself. What needs are we really trying to get met by reading the news? How could the news be changed in order to really benefit society? This is essentially a philosophy book so its advice isn't very practical, but it's fascinating to think about the possibilities.

As a journalists with a strong knowledge of the subject, I was just about punching the air reading this book. I constantly highlighted insights that resonated with my experience. De Boton has a light touch and 'The News' is very easy to read but it's content goes to the core of our communications culture.