Reading list · 8 books

How to read the news

Tests for sources and statistics, with critiques of the press from the left and from the right.

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The Elements of Journalism (opens Bookshop.org)

What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel · 2001

Journalists Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel set out the principles reporters say they follow, including verification and independence, so readers can judge whether a story meets them.
Blur (opens Bookshop.org)

How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel · 2010

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel describe a news environment of assertion and spin, and give readers tests for judging sources, evidence and the kind of story they are reading.
Calling Bullshit (opens Bookshop.org)

The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin D. West · 2020

University of Washington professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West teach readers to spot misleading charts, statistics and studies, drawing on the course they created.
How to Lie with Statistics (opens Bookshop.org)

Darrell Huff · 1954

Darrell Huff's short 1954 classic shows how samples, averages, graphs and correlations are used to mislead, with examples still found in news coverage.
Manufacturing Consent (opens Bookshop.org)

The Political Economy of the Mass Media

Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky · 1988

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky argue from the left that ownership, advertising and sourcing shape what US media report, and test their propaganda model on case studies.
Bias (opens Bookshop.org)

A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News

Bernard Goldberg · 2001

Former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg argues from the right that liberal assumptions in major newsrooms shape coverage, drawing on his own career at the network.
Amusing Ourselves to Death (opens Bookshop.org)

Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Neil Postman · 1985

Media critic Neil Postman argues that television turned politics and news into entertainment, and that the form of a medium shapes what can be said in it.
Factfulness (opens Bookshop.org)

Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund · 2018

Physician and statistician Hans Rosling shows that most people, including experts, score worse than chance on basic world questions, and lists ten instincts that distort how we read the news.