UNITED STATES AUTHOR
James M. Fallows
Also known as: James Fallows
Why, exactly, has the media establishment become so unpopular with so many people?
— from Breaking the news
Most acclaimed
Looking at the sun
1994
The Western world believes that capitalism has won, that our model of individual enterprise and rights has triumphed. But in East Asia a new system has emerged that challenges the economic principles the West extols. In fact, as James Fallows vividly demonstrates, the theories we embrace to explain how nations rise and fall have prevented us from seeing the true nature of this new system and its enormous impact on us. Skillfully blending history with on-the-ground reportage and astute analysis, Fallows reveals how political goals and historical experience have shaped Japan's economic rise and placed it at the heart of the Asian system. He shows how the explosive growth of Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore has been fueled by Japanese investment; why Burma, the Philippines, and Vietnam have been largely isolated from the region's progress; and why Korea, Taiwan, and "Greater China" are the strongest contenders for future economic dominance. Extraordinary in depth and scope, Looking At the Sun provides the first clear picture of the Asian rise and the magnitude of its challenge to the Western world.
Breaking the news
Polls show that Americans from every political, racial, and economic group in the country are mad at the media, but members of the press claim this simply proves that they are doing their job: reporting the news without fear or favor. As James Fallows demonstrates in this razor-sharp indictment, not only is the press not doing "the job," it is actually getting in the way of Americans doing their jobs as citizens. Fallows details the ways in which the current style of news coverage engenders a sense of futility in the American public with regard to its ability to influence our society. Drawing on his own richly varied experience as a reporter and on scores of interviews with members of the print and broadcast media, he reveals how the reigning destructive practices evolved, and whose interests they serve. Outside the urban centers of media power, Fallows finds a new public-spirited approach to news coverage that is gathering passionate adherents while meeting fierce resistance from the media old guard. Breaking the News will ignite the increasingly heated debate over the role of the American media.
The System
To survive you need people watching you, following your every move. That's the only currency now: being interesting, being liked ... and, of course, you have to update every fifteen minutes. It means everyone knows where you are, what you're doing; it means that there are no secrets ... Everybody watches everyone else; nothing is hidden. And for those who fail to 'update' every fifteen minutes, the consequences are deadly. Evie and Raffy may have escaped the city but they still fear for their lives. Now the only person who can help them is Frankie, a total stranger, the most popular girl in the world, watched every second by millions of people. But Frankie has other ideas ... And all the time, Lucas is waiting desperately for word from Evie, word that she is coming back to him.