Why do we keep checking the news?
 
Today, the news occupies the same dominant position in our lives as religion once did. But rarely do we consider how it touches us. Here, Alain de Botton examines a number of archetypal news stories - a plane crash, a murder, a political scandal, a celebrity interview - from a fresh perspective to ask intriguing questions: why do disaster stories titillate? Why obsess over love lives of the famous? Why smile when a politician falls from grace? In so doing, he brings clear sight and understanding to a force which, above all others, informs our view of reality.