The News: A User's Manual by Alain de Botton
| The News: A User's Manual by Alain de Botton | |
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| Category: Politics and Society | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A thought-provoking but occasionally infuriating look at the news. I listened to an audiobook, which gave me two afternoons of pleasureable listening. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 272 | Date: February 2014 |
| Publisher: Bolinda Publshing | |
| ISBN: 978-0307379122 | |
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Alain de Botton maintains that 'the news' has assumed the position in our lives which was once occupied by religion, with some consumers viewing it as often as every fifteen minutes (slight blush there - let's say about every hour...). Furthermore, we do it completely unprotected against every political scandal or celebrity story. The sub-title 'A User's Manual' sets out to remedy this.
It is not, I will confess, what I was expecting. I've long been cynical about bias in news reports and the trend to cover news rather than uncover it. Or - at the other end of the scale - the tendency of 'the news' to make the story, particularly where celebrities are concerned. Instead I felt that I was listening to the words of a man who would like us all to be better people and not to succumb to our baser instincts in choosing which news we read, forgetting that it's the bad news which sells the product - and an income stream is necessary to maintain the news organisations.
As a book it's thought-provoking and infuriating - sometimes at the same time. But it's de Botton and you're reading it for the ideas, for the starting points and the new angle rather than the instructions which 'a user's manual' might lead you to believe you're buying. The story of the doctor who downloaded child porn images is compared to Hamlet or Madame Bovary and de Botton wonders why we don't see the same tragedy in the doctor's story, failing - it seems - to understand that what the average reader wants is to know that the man has been caught and punished.
He argues too for fewer 'facts' and more background and explanation. He wants us to be interested in politics and the stories which most people find boring or uninteresting. He wants us to wonder about countries we know little about. I can't deny that he is right - I know that I ought to be more interested in Uganda, but the fact remains that I have no particular reason to be interested and will probably remain in ignorance. But that doesn't mean that I only relish reading about celebrities or the latest scare - it means that I read as widely as I have time for on the subjects which interest or affect me. I doubt that I'm alone in this approach.
At the end I came to the conclusion that de Botton is right, but probably impractical. Education may well encourage wider reading on news topics, but that's not going to happen overnight. But it's still worth remembering what he has to say.
I didn't read the book but listened to an Audible download. It's unabridged and read by Nicholas Bell, lasting for five hours sixteen minutes - or a couple of afternoons of pleasurable listening. Bell has a voice which is easy on the ear and his skill as a narrator was shown by the way that he could read a book which is largely written in numbered bullet points without it sounding like the manual it purports to be. For me he added to the book considerably and I'd like to thank Audible for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
For more about the news we can recommend There Is No Such Thing As A Free Press by Mick Hume.
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You could get a free audio download of The News: A User's Manual by Alain de Botton with a 30-day Audible free trial at Amazon.co.uk.
You can read more book reviews or buy The News: A User's Manual by Alain de Botton at Amazon.com.
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