The graphic novel begins with an introduction of its author, radio reporter Brooke Gladstone. Early in her life, she realizes that she—and other reporters—are natural observers who “can't really process things” (xii) until they report on them.

Addressing the current state of “consuming media” (xiii), Gladstone acknowledges that consumers “hunger for objectivity” (xiii), but swallow “‘news’ like Jell-O shots in ad hoc cyber-saloons" (xiii). The last 25 years have seen a consolidation of media ownership, proliferation of the “24-hour news cycles” (xiii), accusations of liberal and conservative media biases, and more. Cell phones give everyone access to “make, break, and fabricate news” (xiii), shaking the “citadels of culture and journalism to the core” (xiii).

Gladstone insists that “we've been here before” (xiv) and in far worse shape. In an illustration beside these words, Gladstone appears as one of the biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. She assures readers that “the convulsions roiling the media” (xiv) do not “augur the apocalypse” (xiv). There is no media conspiracy to enact mind control or push any government agenda; rather, media companies fear their "audiences and advertisers" (xiv).

The “central metaphor” (xiv) of the book—the Influencing Machine—is an idea that first occurred in England in 1796.