Price: 23.95 USD; 28.00 CAD
Pages: 192
On-sale Date: 2011-05-23
Editing: Neil Swaab (book design); Anna Oler (production manager); Tom Mayer (editor)
Cover Thumbnail for The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media (W. W. Norton, 2011 series) Edit Cover
Cover Gallery 

[no title indexed]
(Table of Contents)

cover / 1 page

Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
typeset
Editing:
Mark Melnick (cover design)
  • Genre:non-fiction
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone

Issue Data

Series Data

  • Color: Two Color
  • Dimensions: 7.3 " x 9.3 "
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Publishing Format: Graphic Novel
  • Publication Type: book
  • Keywords: History; Journalism; Technology

The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media
(Table of Contents: 1)

credits, title page / 5 pages

Script:
Letters:
typeset
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone
Synopsis:
Title pages, indicia, dedication

[Contents]
(Table of Contents: 2)

table of contents / 1 page

Letters:
typeset

Introduction
(Table of Contents: 3)

foreword, introduction, preface, afterword / 12 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; James Tilly Matthews; Victor Tausk; Natalija A.; Dorothy Gale (cameo); Toto (cameo); Cowardly Lion (camero); Tin Woodsman (cameo); Scarecrow of Oz (cameo)
Synopsis:
Introduction to the concept and themes of the book. Mostly told in comic book panels, interspersed with a few typeset pages with illustrations. Within the introduction are separate stories: "Meet the Author," "Patient Zero," and "The Body Electric."

In the Beginning
(Table of Contents: 4)

comic story / 6 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction; history
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Julius Caesar (cameo); John Milton (cameo)
Synopsis:
The development of journalism and media, going back to the ancient world (Egypt, the Mayans, Greece, and Rome) and then the European Middle Ages.

The American Exception
(Table of Contents: 5)

comic story / 13 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction; history
  • First Line of Dialogue or Text:In New York, printer John Peter Zenger is charged with seditious libel for publishing criticism of the King's governor.
  • Keywords:civil rights; legal system; media; United States
Characters:
John Peter Zenger; Andrew Hamilton; John Adams; Thomas Jefferson; Samuel Adams; George Washington (cameo)
Synopsis:
The development of media in the United States.

Existential Angst
(Table of Contents: 6)

comic story / 13 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction; history; war
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Abraham Lincoln; Woodrow Wilson; Martin Dies; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Senator Joseph McCarthy; Dwight D. Eisenhower; Joseph Welch; Edward R. Murrow; Lyndon Johnson; Walter Cronkite; Richard Nixon; Daniel Ellsberg; H.R. Haldeman; Ronald Ziegler; Anthony Russo; Justice Hugo Black; Carl Bernstein; Bob Woodward; Senator Frank Church; George W. Bush; Barack Obama; Ronald Reagan (cameo); Mikhail Gorbachev (cameo); I.F. Stone (cameo); Thomas Jefferson (cameo)
Synopsis:
A discussion of the First Amendment as it relates to journalism and the government.

Canis Journalistic
(Table of Contents: 7)

comic story / 8 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:humor; non-fiction; history
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Arthur Schopenhauer (cameo); Henrik Ibsen (cameo); William Butler Yeats (cameo); Bobby Fischer (cameo); Helen Thomas; Albert Camus; H.R. Haldeman; Ronald Reagan (cameo); Anderson Cooper (cameo); Senator Mary Landrieu (cameo); Michael Chertoff (cameo); Oprah Winfrey (cameo); Mayor Ray Nagin (cameo); Jim Caviezel (cameo); Jim Amoss (cameo)
Synopsis:
An overview of the changing performance and reputation of the news media.

Birds on a Wire
(Table of Contents: 8)

comic story / 4 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Bill O'Reilly (cameo); Barry McCaffrey (cameo); Helen Thomas (cameo)
Synopsis:
A warning to journalists to do their job, regardless of their popularity.

News You CAN'T Use
(Table of Contents: 9)

comic story / 10 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction
  • First Line of Dialogue or Text:But news consumers complain more about inaccuracy than cowardice.
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Chris Hansen; Alberto Gonzalez (cameo); Ken Lanning; Carl Bialik; Mark Twain; William Randolph Hearst; Frederic Remington;Lou Dobbs; Lesley Stahl (cameo); Claud Cockburn
Synopsis:
A discussion of media accuracy, exaggeration, and the age of Yellow Journalism

The Great Refusal
(Table of Contents: 10)

comic story / 3 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction
  • First Line of Dialogue or Text:Remember what W.B. Yeats said about journalists?
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; William Butler Yeats; John F. Kennedy (cameo)
Synopsis:
Discussion of whether journalists should — or need to — pick sides on issues that they cover.

Bias
(Table of Contents: 11)

comic story / 11 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Arthur Sulzberger Jr.; Rush Limbaugh; Andrew Cline; George W. Bush (cameo); Hillary Clinton (cameo); John Kerry (cameo); Barack Obama (cameo); Al Gore (cameo); John McCain; Tim Russert; John Rennie; Charles Darwin (cameo); Michael Crichton (cameo)
Synopsis:
A look at the various forms of actual bias that news consumers should be aware of: Commercial Bias, Bad News Bias, Status Quo Bias, Access Bias, Visual Bias, Narrative Bias, and Fairness Bias.

War
(Table of Contents: 12)

comic story / 25 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction; history; war
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; William Howard Russell; Prince Albert (cameo); William T. Sherman (cameo); Horace Greeley (cameo); George Smalley (cameo); Joe Hooker (cameo); Hiram Johnson (cameo); Woodrow Wilson; George Creel (cameo); George Seldes; Paul von Hindenberg; General Pershing (cameo); Edward R. Murrow; Ernie Pyle; William Laurence; Wilfred Burchett (cameo); George Weller (cameo); John Hersey; Dan Rather (cameo); Morley Safe (cameo)r; Lyndon Johnson (cameo); Frank Stanton (cameo); Walter Cronkite (cameo); Ronald Reagan; Jack Shafer; John Burnett; Michael Herr;
Synopsis:
The issues confronted by journalists in covering American wars, from the Civil War onwards.

Objectivity
(Table of Contents: 13)

comic story / 15 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction; history
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; James Gordon Bennett (cameo); Adolph Ochs; Tristan Tzara (cameo); Edward Burnays (cameo); Walter Lippmann; Walter Cronkite; Terry Shrunk (cameo); Senator W.J. Stone; Monica Lewinsky (cameo); Bill Clinton (cameo); Hillary Clinton (cameo); George Will (cameo); Cokie Roberts (cameo); Len Downie (cameo); Michael Kinsley; Ethan Bronner (cameo)
Synopsis:
A discussion of the virtues and dangers of objectivity when it comes to covering the news.

Disclosure
(Table of Contents: 14)

comic story / 6 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction; history
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Ida Tarbell (cameo); David Weinberger; Jeff Jarvis (cameo); James Poniewozik (cameo);
Synopsis:
A discussion of the concept of transparency and openness in news reporting and analysis.

The Matrix in Me
(Table of Contents: 15)

comic story / 12 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction
Characters:
Morpheus (the Matrix); Neo (the Matrix); Brooke Gladstone; Brendan Nyhan; Walt Whitman (cameo); Leon Festinger; Dorothy Martin; Donald Thomson; Sarah Palin (cameo); James Fitzjames Stephen (cameo)
Synopsis:
A discussion of how our impulses and reactions are often driven by non-rational instincts.

The Influencing Machines
(Table of Contents: 16)

comic story / 8 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Spock; Marx Brothers (cameo); Cass Sunstein (cameo); Nicholas Carr; Newton N. Minow (cameo); Neil Postman; Gutenberg; Barnaby Rich; Tibor Braun; Douglas Adams
Synopsis:
Discussion of the internet's tendency to create echo chambers, and whether it expands our world view or diminishes it. Also a look into whether our access to more information actually makes us smarter.

... Um, Panic?
(Table of Contents: 17)

comic story / 8 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Sheena Iyengar (cameo); Mark Lepper (cameo); Benjamin Scheibehenne (cameo); Clay Shirky; Lynn Smith-Lovin (cameo); Lee Rainie; Nicholas Carr; Kate Haynes
Synopsis:
Further discussion of the internet's power to connect — or disconnect — people, and the question of information overload.

I, Robot
(Table of Contents: 18)

comic story / 5 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Adam Wilson (cameo); Marshall McLuhan (cameo); George Dyson (cameo); Ray Kurzweil; Jaron Lanier
Synopsis:
A look at a possible future where technology is integrated into human biology.

...I, Media
(Table of Contents: 19)

comic story / 7 pages

Script:
Pencils:
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
  • Genre:non-fiction
  • First Line of Dialogue or Text:How can we ensure the our development as moral and social animals keeps pace with our rapidly evolving communications technology?
  • Keywords:forecasting; history; media; morality; technology
Characters:
Brooke Gladstone; Yochai Benkler (cameo); Robert Wright; Genghis Khan (cameo)
Synopsis:
The book's final chapter considers the implications of an increasingly hi-tech media environment. The book ends with the statement, "We get the media we deserve."

Acknowledgements
(Table of Contents: 20)

text article / 3 pages

Script:
Letters:
typeset
Synopsis:
Gladstone and Neufeld write their acknowledgements.

Sources
(Table of Contents: 21)

text article / 8 pages

Letters:
typeset
Synopsis:
A chapter-by-chapter listing of sources.
Editing
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Table of Contents ToC
    Table of Contents
  1. [no title indexed]
  2. The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media
  3. [Contents]
  4. Introduction
  5. In the Beginning
  6. The American Exception
  7. Existential Angst
  8. Canis Journalistic
  9. Birds on a Wire
  10. News You CAN'T Use
  11. The Great Refusal
  12. Bias
  13. War
  14. Objectivity
  15. Disclosure
  16. The Matrix in Me
  17. The Influencing Machines
  18. ... Um, Panic?
  19. I, Robot
  20. ...I, Media
  21. Acknowledgements
  22. Sources
Related Links
Issue was modified by
  • Katie
  • Boris Ammerlaan
  • Josh Neufeld
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