Developing media literacy is an important skill! One way to approach this work is to understand the genre of the work you are reading! We can determine genre i

Developing media literacy is an important skill! One way to approach this work is to understand the genre of the work you are reading! We can determine genre in a few ways, but in this case, we see that the publication is the New Yorker, which tells us to expect magazine-style writing, specifically longer form feature pieces. Another important clue is that this is published in the New Yorker's "Books" section, suggesting that this is a book review. And, if you know much about the New Yorker's book reviews, they often include things such as history of the field the book addresses, compares the book to other related books, and what the book's thesis might imply about our world today. This longer form book review can introduce important context and enrich your understanding of the world! I encourage you to keep an open mind and continue to read pieces that are outside of your usual genre.