Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Something to Read

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food

I read this piece a month back after my mom emailed it to me, and would like to share it with the class. An excerpt from Michael Moss's most recent book "Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us," the piece explores the research and marketing behind junk food, specifically how to get consumers to eat more, crave more, and buy more. For me, this piece combined a personal interest: health and food to create a strong, clearly researched piece which seems to stand on it's own, despite being part of a larger story.

The piece incorporates several layers of reporting: Moss tells his own narrative about his experiences and relationship with the CEO's and scientists he interviews, tells their stories, explains events attended, research projects he reviewed, and marketing campaigns he evaluated. In class, I'd be interested in talking about the level of research and time commitment needed to create a book/ piece of this sort, and our opinions of narrative books (like Gail's) and this one, and how this fits into our understanding of journalism.

Enjoy, see you all in class.

No comments:

Post a Comment