Flat Earth News - Nick Davies - Summary Contents

Flat Earth News Nick Davies Summary contents
1: Flat Earth Stories AKA Churnalism

1. The Bug that Ate the World The story of the Millennium Bug hype
2: The News Factory

2. The Workers The essential ingredients for the concoction of all Flat Earth news
an unreliable statement created by outsiders, usually for their own
commercial or political benet, injected via a wire agency into the
arteries of the media through which it then circulates around the
whole body of global communication. And, most important, at every
stage, as it passes through the hands of all those journalists into all
those outlets, nobody checks it. Not enough workers, too little time,
wrong priorities.
3. The Suppliers Two routes: Press Association and PR. PA used without checking. PA
only aim to accurately report was said.
UK has more PR people than journos.
Commercial, Political, Special interest & NGO.
Result a world-wide, homogenised set of stories. E.g. Google News
14,000 stories were actually 24 news events.
4. The Rules of Production 1. Run cheap stories, 2. Select safe facts, 3. Avoid the electric fence
(e.g. special interest attacks), 4. Select safe ideas (flow with the
consensus), 5. Always give both sides of the story, 6. Give them what
they want, 7. Bias against truth (everything reduce to events thus
missing the chronic and slow burn problems), 8. Give them what they
want to believe in (confirmation bias), 9. Go with the moral panic, 10.
Ninja Turtle syndrome (follow what everybody else is following)
3: Hidden Persuaders
5. The Private Life of Public E.g. The Nat West Three. The emergence of pseudo group promoting
Relations commercial or sectional interests, Tobacco, Food, Oil. Pseudo
evidence, surveys, etc.
6. The Propaganda Puzzle The Zarqawi story. US Strategic Communication organisation.
Confusion at the international conference. Use of white phosphorus
(chemical weapon) in Fallujah.
4: Inside Stories
7. The Dark Arts Whittamore and Marshall guilty of stealing hundreds of docs on
behalf of journalists but given conditional discharge. Information
Commission didnt have the funds to take on the Papers in a high
profile trial. PCC is toothless.
8. Insight into the Sunday The Insight team unveiling of Kim Philby followed by a long decline
Times starting under Andrew Neill and the Murdocs. The shootings on
Gibraltar.
9. The Blinded Observer The sad story of decline under Robert Alton and Kamal Ahmed who
became very close to Alistair Campbell.
10. Mail Aggression The Vagina Dialogues from Paul Dacre.
1
Was it any good?
Ten things I want from a Factual Book 5 Good

to
1 Bad
1. Story/Idea does it have an interesting story or new idea to 5
communicate, one that I can relate to?
2. Readability and momentum does it make me want to keep 4
going/come back to it or is it always hard work?
3. Clarity is the English clear or do I have to hack through the 5
undergrowth of the text?
4. Structure is there a logical structure. Does it build a convincing 4
argument? Does it then summarise clearly?
5. Empathy If its a factual story, do I relate to the characters, do I 5
care what happens to them?
6. Do I learn relevant new stuff that I value? 5
7. Was it inspirational? Will it change what I do? 4
8. Does it have Fun? 2
9. Do I get an insight that gives a new perspective? A better model 5
of the world?
10. Recommendation would I recommend it to a friend? 5
Bottom line:
For me, a world-view changing book (or maybe confirmation of something Id been vaguely aware
of).
Nick Davies link: www.flatearthnews.net
My notes
Get news out FAST
Good detailed history of the dissolution of the traditional news gathering services
Book written pre Twitter - so presumably much worse now
Paul (Metrica/Durrants) 40K Journalist Database/ PR Links
Elephant and Rider thinking - PR focuses on Elephant
Internet filters mean we just feed our confirmation biases
Pseudo-events and surveys
NB: Ultimately the real product needs to match the story. You can't just invent a
myth and sustain it
Does a good job of following the Daily Mail maxim "a good article should leave the
reader either angry or worried"
Devastating set of stories about The Times/Sunday Times, The Observer and worst of
all the Mail
Paul Dacre does from inside a paper what others seek to do from the outside
2
Doesn't hold out much hope! Internet can provide alternative views but tends to
amplify conspiracy theories, BBC offers some hope, some non-profit organisations in
the USA do as well.
Mail journalist that survive absorb and reflect the culture they live in. Johnny would
be a good example of this.
So how have things changed since 2008? Worse? Better?
What happened to the proposed changes to the PCC?
Although the book appears to be very well researched with lots of sources and
evidence how much of it should we believe?
Generally good reviews from the press but the Telegraph has this slightly worrying paragraph:
No one should expect journalists to be as high-minded as Nick Davies. Theirs is - or should be - a

murky, occasionally mucky, job done by people short on scruples and long on curiosity, suspicious of
everything and everybody, and of favours most of all.
Discussion Points
Alans
The concept of disinterested news presentation. Can it exist?
Leverson recommendations - if we remember them.
Whistle-blowers. If news media is easily controlled by commercial and government
interests are whistle-blowers essential figures in a democracy? If Nick Davies was
writing his book today what would he be saying about Assange, Manning, Snowdon
and Daniel Miranda?
The value of having a state owned broadcasting service - or not!
With declining newspaper sales what will be the future of news distribution?
The book and the author.
Mikes:
Technology (what else from me?), in particular algorithms, continues to hollow out
many traditional middle class jobs of which journalism is a prime example. It's a
short step from what Nick Davies describes to a software curated 'news stream' from
Google that is tuned to your particular beliefs. Reflecting back to our previous reads,
your 'Elephant's' confirmation bias is fed continuously with comforting stuff and the
'Rider', being lazy, need hardly ever get involved.
Equally, the internet opens up many more streams of information. But how do you
find the valuable and truthful and evidence-based stuff while you're trying to drink
from a fire hydrant? Disintermediation is great but who are the new trusted
curators?
3
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Flat Earth News Nick Davies Summary contents

1: Flat Earth Stories AKA Churnalism

2: The News Factory

Was it any good?

Ten things I want from a Factual Book 5 Good

Nick Davies link: www.flatearthnews.net

No one should expect journalists to be as high-minded as Nick Davies. Theirs is - or should be - a

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