Rarely has a book so quickly and persuasively changed my viewpoint about a subject the way Ryan Holiday has in regards to blogs, the news, and social media. ( )

لا شك أن المدونات ومواقع التواصل الاجتماعي أضحت اليوم المصدر الرئيسي للمعلومات والأخبار بالنسبة لغالبية الناس. لكن هذه الوسائط هي في الحقيقة أبعد كثيراً عن أن تكون مصادر موثوقة وذات مصداقية. فكل مدونة أو موقع إخباري هي عمل تجاري يحصّل أرباحه من مبيعات الإعلانات. ونظراً لأن هذه الإيرادات تزداد بزيادة عدد القراء الزائرين لصفحة الموقع على الانترنت، فإن هذه المواقع تعمل على جلب القراء بشتى الطرق والوسائل بما في ذلك نشر الهراء الخالص والإشاعات، دون أن تهتم بإنتاج محتوى حقيقي موثوق ذي جودة.

أمثلة متنوعة وأفكار صائبة ناقشها الكتاب، لكن معرفتي المسبقة بمجمل الموضوع والنقاط المطروحة جعلت قراءتي للكتاب سريعة مع قليل الجديد الذي استوقفني. ( )

Ryan Holiday exposes the ease with which online news organizations and blogs can be easily manipulated, based on his experience using the system to promote his projects, clients, and American Apparel. He provides great insight into the blurring of the lines between blogging and journalism and how the twin factors of add revenue based on screen views and the desire to break a story first create the perfect storm of rumors as news and sensationalist stories appealing to fear, anger, or scandal. When you finish the book you truly will see news and blogging in a different light and how a "follow the money" approach explains so much of what we see. His information on iterative journalism explains how organizations publish rumor but do an ineffective job of "getting the story right" but make profit on the incorrect story and the updates to correct it. Not content to just discuss methods and practices, he dissects real news events and promotional efforts to demonstrate how the monster feeds and operates. His insight into the major web hubs for news and individuals, from Huffington to Breitbart, will provide some much needed perspective on how we get our news and whether we really are informed.

He presents the material as exposing media manipulation techniques but one could follow the process and have a good chance at promotional success but at a cost. I was put off on some of his initial YouTube interviews as he seemed like a person confessing sins that he is proud of committing. His later books reveal one who has learned and matured from this dark place to a more settled view of the world and a better ethical approach to life. Finish this book and you'll never view blogs and online news the same again. ( )

Introduction illustrated by personal experience of media manipulation (through blogs, pivoting/escalation, and other techniques) and the influence this has had on the world. Nothing really magic, but does shake one's faith (if there were any left) in both the mainstream media and the bloggers/online, as they are both very connected and vulnerable to compromise. ( )

Just like the media, you shouldn't trust this book 100%. But a lot of what Ryan postulates can be confirmed with a quick visit to techmeme or gawker. It's depressing, true, but knowing (at least part of) the truth helps you to not fall for all the schemes. ( )