The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media

Gladstone is an American journalist and media analyst who hosts the WNYC radio program On the Media, which covers journalism, the media, the First Amendment, and technology. She describes herself as “a generally dark individual” (155) who thinks “this is a great time to be alive” (155). Gladstone's book, The Influencing Machine, acts as a distilled print version of the radio show. Gladstone introduces herself in the book's first few pages as a reporter who likes “to pry” (xi). Quoting New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen, Gladstone calls being a reporter “as much a diagnosis as a job description” (xii). Throughout the book, Gladstone repeatedly takes this humorously self-deprecating, but empowering, stance toward herself and other reporters. For example, she allows illustrator Josh Neufeld to not only portray her as a dog—eager to bark at the least arousal—but also as a dog that also pees and sniffs other dogs’ butts. Gladstone keeps a mostly positive—though wry at times—outlook on the relationship of the media, consumers, and technology. Early on, she asks readers to take responsibility for their position as the media's reflection, rather than its passive subjects. As Gladstone writes in the book's conclusion, consumers get “the media we deserve” (156).