Flat Earth News – Nick Davies
I am really not a big fan of the mainstream media – that, as most of you will know, is no secret. I don’t like sensationalism, I hate celebrity culture, and I dislike the paternalistic, materialistic nonsense which seems to be characteristic of most news channels today, whether visual, audio or written. I came to Flat Earth News with this attitude, and this book didn’t just reinforce it – it validated it and gave case studies and evidence for why I feel that way.
I honestly believe that this book should be mandatory reading for everyone who has ever picked up a newspaper, or regurgitated an argument which they have read in a headline or heard on Sky.
Davies sets out to expose the corner-cutting, biases, falsehoods, lies and deceit which underpins much of today’s media. He explains why the ‘news lite’ we receive each day is selective, repetitive, sensational and often very poorly researched. He demonstrates that true investigative journalism has almost been completely wiped out, and that truth and exposure are the least of the considerations in many of the news organisations. And his thesis puts most of it down to the fact that news is now a corporate profit making exercise, and like all capitalistic institutions, money and profit is paramount, political advantage (leading to profit) is secondary, and no longer on the radar is informing the public, and exposing the truth.
That may seem like a pretty dire assessment to make, but his arguments made perfect sense and were backed up with a lot of evidence and case studies. I was told on Twitter that he didn’t actually carry out most of the research – be that as it may, he published it and in my opinion, an expose like this needs to be made public irrespective of who does it, so I am grateful that he went out on a limb to do so.
The problem with this book was that it ended with very little hope, but then, perhaps that is reality. Our society is so driven by profit that the chances of philanthropic newspaper owners, journalists willing to go out on a limb to get to the truth and impartial reporting ever returning are slim. That is not to say you can’t find that somewhere, but it isn’t in the instant, 24hour news. One could argue that the BBC shouldn’t be a corporation battling with the likes of NewsCorp, but because the bar has been set, the BBC simply has to keep up. As a result, their journalists (or ‘churnalists’ as the author calls them) are under as much pressure, with as few resources and as little leeway as their corporate, profit driven counterparts. And the only real result is that the ignorant public remains ignorant.
I finished the book wondering how on earth one was supposed to discover what the truth was in the world when we are numbed daily by the flat earth news cycle? Do blogs and the internet help? Partially, but it takes some time and effort to weed out the good writing on the internet from the dross. How about quality, independent publications? Yes, but sadly they are only read by a cultural ‘elite’ of sorts who have the time, education and motivation to seek them out and read them. Your average person going home on the train, who has spent the past 10 hours of their day working desperately hard so that they can pay their mortgage and meet the next payment on the new car as well as the kids school fees, is not likely to sit down with anything more taxing than the Metro. And therein lies the problem.
I do lament how driven our world is by money, profit, greed and competition. In fact, since reading this book, I have read another about Zimbabwe (which I will review shortly) which just reconfirmed this. This is human nature, and the way of the world. But that shouldn’t stop every thinking person from asking questions, challenging the loudest voices and making the decision to make up their own mind.
You can read more at Nick Davies website, Flat Earth News
Rating: 10/10
ISBN: 0099512688
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2009
Date Finished: 15 October 2009
Pages: 320
Excellent review. Yes, I’d heard the goss about ND not actually doing any research for this book. But then, why would he need to? Surely the facts are right there in front of us, as you intimate in your introduction. The process of PR taking over journalism has marched in step with print and electronic media being increasingly swallowed up by conglomerates (or, as in the case of the BBC, becoming ‘corporatised’). The sad results are, as you say …
Great blog, BT. Greetings from a jaded ex-journo in France
[...] the end of last year, I read Flat Earth News by Nick Davies and, although I have to confess I wasn’t a particular fan of mainstream media [...]