jarizleifr reviewed La Tyrannie de la communication by Ignacio Ramonet
Review of 'La Tyrannie de la communication' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I read the Finnish translation of the book by Jouni Kuurne (couldn't find that specific edition on Goodreads).
The book describes in detail how media conglomerates wield unjustifiable power over the minds of people. The book was written at a time when the Internet was still a relatively small enterprise, but still managed to foresee many of the issues we're dealing with today, regarding the entertainmentization of news, shock tactics when seeking for largest possible distribution, and the centralization of media technology.
The tone of the book is somewhat bitter, written by someone who has worked their entire life in journalism, only to see it devolve into something reserved only for tabloids back then. The things have gotten only worse since the writing of this book, which makes me wonder if the path we're on currently is any better.
The takeaway from this book is that receiving information is a …
I read the Finnish translation of the book by Jouni Kuurne (couldn't find that specific edition on Goodreads).
The book describes in detail how media conglomerates wield unjustifiable power over the minds of people. The book was written at a time when the Internet was still a relatively small enterprise, but still managed to foresee many of the issues we're dealing with today, regarding the entertainmentization of news, shock tactics when seeking for largest possible distribution, and the centralization of media technology.
The tone of the book is somewhat bitter, written by someone who has worked their entire life in journalism, only to see it devolve into something reserved only for tabloids back then. The things have gotten only worse since the writing of this book, which makes me wonder if the path we're on currently is any better.
The takeaway from this book is that receiving information is a deliberate act and it should be done with care and wisdom, and not rely on overtly emotional sources or only those that make us feel good. And that's something the media conglomerates have managed to weaponize against us, the entire attention economy and social media. What a sad state of things.