The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media

The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media is a nonfiction graphic novel written by journalist Brooke Gladstone and illustrated by Josh Neufeld. Throughout, Gladstone’s objective is to resist the idea that the media are a machine that manipulates consumers' minds without consent. Instead, she argues that the media are a “degrading, tedious, and transcendent funhouse mirror of America” (xxi). The media “do not control” (xiv) consumers, the media “pander” (xiv) to them. Consumers fear their own distorted reflection, not media manipulation.

The “central metaphor” (xiv) of the book is the “influencing machine.” Psychoanalyst Victor Tausk coins this term in his 1919 article, “On the Origin of the ‘Influencing Machine’ in Schizophrenia.” Tausk discovers this phenomenon in the case of Natalija A., a patient who believes she's “under the spell of an electrical apparatus operated by a rejected suitor” (xvii). Natalija divests the machine of all human features, thus making it easier for the machine to fracture her own identity. This is what consumers have done to the media: “shattered themselves into fragments and projected the shameful bits” (xix) onto the media.

Gladstone traces modern journalism's origins from the scribes of the ancient Mayans—"publicists” (3) who generate “primordial P.R.” (3)—through ancient Rome, Britain, and early America. Today, people admire and hate characteristics that have existed since the media’s creation: “its corrupt and craven practitioners, its easy manipulation by the powerful, its capacity for propagating lies” (20).

Gladstone examines the history of “speech suppression in America” (21), the erosion of trust between consumers and the media, and the multiple biases the media fall into when reporting. Gladstone devotes a significant section of the book to war reporting, where “every media bias shows up […] in spades” (71) due to limited sources, patriotism, sacrifice of context for action, and preferences for visual and horrific stories. During wars, the government “supplies plot, the threat, and the enemy's depravity” (71); therefore, suppression of information is deemed necessary for national security, and “our reason for fighting” (72) is lost “in the fog of war” (72).

The book discusses the ebb and flow of media objectivity and how technology has changed, not just the media, but human brains. Rather than adopt the pessimistic outlook of some researchers and thinkers, Gladstone praises studies that show how Internet use strengthens brain areas associated with "decision making and complex reasoning" (144). Consumers can engage with modern media in ethical, constructive ways, such as “playing an active role in our media consumption” (150), “trusting reporters who demonstrate fairness and reliability” (150), and using peer-based networks to bring attention to pressing issues. Gladstone emphasizes the amount of control consumers actually have over how the media report and spread news stories.

Josh Neufeld’s black and blue ink, newsprint-like illustrations do not overwhelm the content. Instead, they bring levity to otherwise dry information. Both Gladstone and Neufeld consistently show a sense of humor toward the Gladstone narrator character, such as in an early panel where Gladstone appears as a human sacrifice for ancient Mayans. Gladstone is portrayed as two disparaging metaphors for journalists: a barking dog and a flocking bird.