Overview

From the popular and award-winning staff writer for The Atlantic, an eye-opening look at how the current media landscape has incentivized us to see our fellow citizens as characters in an ongoing entertainment--and how we can fight back against this phenomenon. Whether it's our reality-television-star President or our expertly curated Instagram feeds, the line between fact and fiction--between what's real and what's fabricated for entertainment--has never been more blurred. Screen People explores what happens when we cede our reality to spectacle. Megan Garber explains how today's internet-inflected culture conditions us to see one another not as people but as characters in an ongoing show, and how some of our most chronic and harmful social conditions--loneliness, depression, mistrust, misinformation, cynicism--stem from our demand for diversion. In ten chapters, each themed around an element of entertainment--from ""The Producers,"" who edit our reality, to ""The Extras,"" the strangers we turn into objects of our amusement, to ""the Haters,"" the worshipful Qanon-types who expect the prophecies of their anonymous leader to play out on live television--Garber argues that this comedy of our daily lives is quickly becoming tragedy. And we can't understand our politics without first understanding our culture. Like The Anxious Generation but about our media diet, Screen People shows why Megan Garber is one of the most respected and widely-read journalists of our day. It is an urgent, page-turning, and dazzling look at how we entertained ourselves into our current predicament, and how we might find our way out of the maze of misinformation and chaos.

Full Product Details

9798228690806

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Megan Garber is a staff writer at The Atlantic. She is the recipient of a Mirror Award for her writing about the media and a fellowship from the New America Foundation, and she previously worked as a reporter for the Nieman Journalism Lab, as well as a critic for the Columbia Journalism Review. She wrote the chap book On Misdirection: Magic, Mayhem, American Politics. She lives in Washington, DC. Courtney Patterson graduated magna cum laude with a BA in theater performance from Valdosta State University. She is an associate artist at Georgia Shakespeare where she has appeared in dozens of shows, taught in the education department, and developed a cabaret series. She can also be seen frequently on the stages of the Alliance Theatre and has also worked at the Aurora Theatre, Theatre in the Square, Theatrical Outfit, Synchronicity Performance Group, and the Horizon Theatre. In addition to her work on stage, she narrates audiobooks and performs in film and television.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available