The NewsOur lives are saturated with news. But how does it affect us? And how should we read it? 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