Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Have you ever wondered why some people are extremely successful and others are not? Is there something that has always set successful people apart? How can you be successful like them? In Malcolm Gladwell’s third book, Outliers: The Story of Success, he reveals and decodes the secrets about success. His book reveals secrets to extraordinary success with stories of real people told from an unbiased perspective. He explains what Bill Gates, the Beatles and other world-class successes have in common. Successful people need to be understood by their background, where they’re from, their culture, their family, and their generation. Throughout the book Gladwell overturns many ideas about what makes a person successful and he suggests ways to give people the best opportunities to succeed. This is a must read book for anyone who is interested in why people are successful and obtain a better understanding of society. Outliers is inspirational and anyone can benefit from reading this book.
“Extraordinary achievement is less about talent than it is about opportunity.”

101 SALARY SECRETS: How to Negotiate Like a Pro

You will NOT be wasting your time by reading this book.  Daniel Porot and Frances Haynes do an incredible job feeding you the tips you need to know when negotiating a salary during an interview.  The interview curve, The Nuts and Bolts of Salaries, Eleven Proven Principles and the Seven Specific Strategies are handed to you in this book.  Of course I could tell you what all of these topics consist of, but it is up to you to find out on your own.  This book answered a lot of my questions and concerns about interviewing and negotiating that first salary.  Don't let salary negotiation petrify you or keep you from landing a job, do your research and be one step ahead of the game-READ THIS BOOK!

Desperate Networks by Bill Carter

Desperate networks is Bill Carter’s inside take on the four major networks as they struggle to compete for viewers against cable, internet, and video games. NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX are not only in competition with each other these days but now they must compete with all the other options we have today. Carter use to write for the New York Times covering all things television and with all his inside sources he spent the first five years of the new millennium interviewing the networks’ big shots. With all these stories and interviews Carter composed a very informative and in dept look at today’s network television industry.

By: Adrian Janowicz

The Disney Way

I really enjoyed the Disney way by bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson. Walt Disney is one of my biggest heroes, from his amazing creations of fantasy in his movies, to the childhood soft spot of disneyland, to his multi-billion dollar Disney empire. The Disney Way is a book inspired by Walt Disney's motto of Dream! Believe! Dare! Do! It is a great motto to carry through life  and a surefire phrase to live by so that your dreams will come true. No one can deny the success of the Disney brand, and Walt was just smart enough to manage all of his creations to the fullest extent. This book is filled with really useful information that can be conveyed to any company on how to create, network, and manage an empire. I found it interesting that the authors were not even disney affiliated but that they had used the techniques so successfully they wanted to share with  the world. Everything in the book is practical, common sense strategies to build a team and micromanage everything to the fullest. Looking at the Walt Disney Empire, it is tough to think that it all started with a mouse.

Camelia Laurio

"Essential Managers: Managing Change"

“Essential Managers: Managing Change” by Robert Heller and Tim Hindle is a short yet very informative read regarding management. It teaches all you need to know about adapting to change from initiation, modifications to responding positively to them. I think this would be a great book for anyone working in the media industry to read because changes are continuously made in the field. Managing change enables you to understand and plan change to achieve the best results, plus it provides practical techniques for you to try in different settings - which I thought was useful. I would definitely recommend this book to not only my fellow classmates but to top executives as well. Ability to change is crucial in today's business environment.

Book review by Cassandra Ramirez

The Google Story, Book Review #2

After hearing about the Google book from Greg in our class, I was instantly interested in reading this book. The story of google showed how Google took over, and created a new name for the internet. The book goes into depth about how the company began. The story is told on more of a personal level between the two creators which makes it interesting to read, and relatable. All in all, I did really enjoy reading the book. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the digital era.

Review by Aly Ostrosky-Farago

"Keeping Cool on the Hot Seat" Review by Crystal

Very simple and easy to read, this book should have been called “PR Crisis Management for Dummies”. I originally purchased this book due to all the great reviews posted on Amazon, after doing a search for books on media management. Every chapter begins with a quote that gives some of insight on the material that’s covered. My favorite quote was “The irony of the ‘Information Age’ is that it has given new respectability to uninformed opinion.” The information in the book is presented in a simple manner using concepts which are extremely easy to understand, that even a seventh grader interested in media and PR would comprehend. Anyone that has already received any sort of training or education in media would not benefit from reading this book. The author, Judith Hoffman has worked as a media spokesperson for over 16-years. She’s taught numerous seminars and even included worksheets from her workshops in this book. Overall, I give this book three and a half stars.

The Google Story - Inside the Hottest Business, Media and Technology Success of Our Time

David A. Vise and Mark Malseed's National Bestseller "The Google Story" is a triumphant account of the history of the world's favorite website. The book delves more into the human side of the booming company rather than dissects and analyze, and it highlights important events that have brought Google to where it is today. It is a remarkable tale of how two techy guys from Stanford, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, wanted to improve online search capabilities. Their dream quickly became a reality, and with the help of CEO Eric Schmidt and some risky Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Google went from a Palo Alto startup to Microsoft's biggest competitor in just a few short years. I found out that by the summer of 2006, Google's stock was more valuable than Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo combined.

This book is a must for anyone curious about how the familiar blank-paged search engine makes money through advertising within search results, much like traditional media companies. The behind-the-scenes research done by the authors gives the reader an insider's view of the unique company. They preach their motto of "Don't Be Evil" to employees and have a 20 percent rule, where their employees are encouraged to spend 20 percent of their working time on projects that personally interest them. This new-age approach to management is what led to Gmail and Google News. The book reveals what life is like at the remarkable Googleplex, where the staff is treated to daily, healthy gourmet meals for free and how the casual atmosphere feels more like a college campus than a Fortune 500 company. The encouragement of working in small groups without the dominance of managers is how Google keeps their employees motivated.

"The Google Story" tells of the problems the company had with privacy issues, particularly with ads in users' Gmail accounts, tailored to match keywords in emails. You will also learn how Google dealt with overbearing investors and Wall Street, and how they went public and made the founders instant billionaires. During Google's first year after going public, it was worth more than media conglomerate Time Warner, and the hardly-decade old company was also worth more than the combined value of Disney, Ford, and General Motors. A truly fascinating story of new media's star child, this book is a highly personal as well as informative read. Just be warned that the authors never speak unfavorably about Google, but rather defend it in every tale of fighting lawsuits and privacy groups. If you can get beyond that and accept that Google would be the ideal employer, than I highly recommend reading "The Google Story".

Published by Delta, Updated 2006 Edition.