1. The Influencing Machine:
A Visionary and Opinionated Work of Graphic
Nonfiction on the Media and Its Discontents.

2. Brooke Gladstone
Cartoon Version
In Real Life
Host of…

3. About The Book
Illustrated by Josh Neufeld

4. Types of Media Biases
• Commercial Bias-News has to be new to sell
• Bad News Bias-Bad news also sells news
• Status Quo Bias- don’t rock the boat, baby
• Access Bias-Gatekeepers pay a price
• Visual Bias-pictures over words
• Narrative Bias-fitting facts into standard plots
• Fairness Bias- bending over backwards

5. What kind of bias is this?

6. What kind of bias is this?

7. ‘The Donut Hole’

8. Objectivity is Impossible!
Transparency is the new
objectivity! Bias is Inevitable!!!
Which means…
Reporters should link to their
sources
Disclose their voting records
Then make kick-
ass, reliable, quality
journalism

9. Your Media Diet: Fun Exercise
• In two minutes, write down what you ‘eat’ for
media, from breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• How much do you trust these sources? Where
can you identify bias in these sources?
• What’s healthy and
what’s junk?
• Does it nourish you?
How?

10. Remember…