My job is to lie to the media so they can lie to you. I am, to put it bluntly, a media manipulator-I’m paid to deceive. But that’s a polite veneer to hide the harsh truth. IF YOU WERE BEING KIND, YOU WOULD SAY MY JOB IS IN marketing and public relations, or online strategy and advertising. Now excuse me, as I head off click on that Mashable link to 'Watch Robot Tentacles Gently Pick Up a Flower.' (So that's why Mashable always presents its photos in a slideshow - to get more clicks!) I won't look at websites, that do nothing but aim to fritter your time away, the same way again.

This book is definitely a paradigm-shifter. And you would really start doubting any content you read online after you're done with this book, when you find out how poorly vetted articles are. It's rumours on steroids.Ģ) The reasons for why content is assembled and presented that way is because of traffic and clicks, targets that bloggers desperately need to hit. She ruins people's lives.' And all this happens in a matter of hours of days. To quote Janis Ian from Mean Girls, 'Cause she's a life ruiner. For me, the book boils down to 2 things that need not have been talked about in an entire book:ġ) The internet, that forms the culture of our current generation, can ruin a person's life with false accusations made. That, you can get from reading the book, I agree. The premise is exciting and I was really psyched about reading about how one manipulates the media. It was a pretty good book but I didn't enjoy it and actually had to pull myself through the book at times. Now, if only this were a 800 word blog post instead of a book. What you choose to do with this information is up to you. I'm going to explain exactly how the media 'really' works.

I'm pulling back the curtain because I don't want anyone else to get blindsided. Why am I giving away these secrets? Because I'm tired of a world where blogs take indirect bribes, marketers help write the news, reckless journalists spread lies, and no one is accountable for any of it. In today's culture.ġ) Blogs like 'Gawker,' 'Buzzfeed' and the 'Huffington Post' drive the media agenda.Ģ) Bloggers are slaves to money, technology, and deadlines.ģ) Manipulators wield these levers to shape everything you read, see and watch-online and off. In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs-as much as any one person can. What you don't know is that someone is responsible for all this. Some product or celebrity zooms from total obscurity to viral sensation. A political sideshow derails the national news cycle and destroys a candidate. A malicious online rumor costs a company millions.

Ryan holiday gawker