Skyful of Lies and Black Swans: The New Tyranny of Shifting Information Power in Crises. Nik Gowing. Oxford, UK: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 2009. 84 pp. £13 pbk. Free download from http:// reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ publications/risj.html.
Nik Gowing’s career as a media professional, pundit, and scholar gives his insights into how news works considerable credibility. In this 2009 paper for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the longtime BBC commentator wonders and wanders through new media’s impact on public policy, and ponders “the new fragility and brittleness” of social institutions. Are government, military, and corporate bosses powerless or ineffectual when what Gowing calls “fast proliferating and almost ubiquitous breed of ‘information doers’” can set and frame the debate before the institutions of power can in gear?