鈥淎n absolutely excellent analysis鈥� of the role of the media in the construction of fear. That鈥檚 how Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Kent at Canterbury, describes David Altheide鈥檚 Creating Fear: News and the construction of crisis (Aldine de Gruyter, 2001). He says anyone interested in engaging with the issue of public fears and panics must read it.
Furedi has also been reading two 鈥渦seful鈥� books on the biotechnology revolution, Francis Fukuyama鈥檚 Our Posthuman Future (Profile, 2002) and Gregory Stock鈥檚 Redesigning Humans (Profile, 2002). Although drawn toward Stock鈥檚 analysis, he finds that Fukuyama raises the big questions in a powerful and compelling manner.
But he says he鈥檚 given up on Will Hutton鈥檚 The World We鈥檙e In (Little, Brown, 2002), which he argues, is 鈥渁nother one of those 鈥榮top the world, it鈥檚 too American, I want to get off鈥� tracts鈥�.
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