Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show BusinessTelevision has conditioned us to tolerate visually entertaining material measured out in spoonfuls of time, to the detriment of rational public discourse and reasoned public affairs. In this eloquent, persuasive book, Neil Postman alerts us to the real and present dangers of this state of affairs, and offers compelling suggestions as to how to withstand the media onslaught. Before we hand over politics, education, religion, and journalism to the show business demands of the television age, we must recognize the ways in which the media shape our lives and the ways we can, in turn, shape them to serve out highest goals. |
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Page 15
... believe that it does . And why do we believe that it does ? Because we have tools that imply that this is what the mind is like . Indeed , our tools for thought suggest to us what our bodies are like , as when someone refers to her ...
... believe that it does . And why do we believe that it does ? Because we have tools that imply that this is what the mind is like . Indeed , our tools for thought suggest to us what our bodies are like , as when someone refers to her ...
Page 28
... believe , a critical mass in that electronic media have decisively and irreversibly changed the character of our symbolic environment . We are now a culture whose informa- tion , ideas and epistemology are given form by television , not ...
... believe , a critical mass in that electronic media have decisively and irreversibly changed the character of our symbolic environment . We are now a culture whose informa- tion , ideas and epistemology are given form by television , not ...
Page 158
... believe nothing if not that history is moving us toward some preordained paradise and that technology is the force behind that movement . Thus , there are near insurmountable difficulties for anyone who has written such a book as this ...
... believe nothing if not that history is moving us toward some preordained paradise and that technology is the force behind that movement . Thus , there are near insurmountable difficulties for anyone who has written such a book as this ...
Contents
The Medium Is the Metaphor | 3 |
Media as Epistemology | 16 |
Typographic America | 30 |
Copyright | |
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advertising Aldous Huxley America amusing argument audience become believe Billy Graham called celebrities Charles Finney claims classroom coherent communication conversation course created culture Diff'rent Strokes Douglas eighteenth entertainment epistemology example exposition fact Frye Huxley idea implied intellectual irrelevant Jerry Falwell Jimmy Swaggart language learning Lincoln-Douglas debates literacy Marshall McLuhan matter means medium ment merely metaphor Mimi mind movie nature newscaster newspaper nineteenth century oral Orwell Pat Robertson photograph play preachers President printed word printing press problem public discourse question radio rational readers reason religion religious Reverend Robert Schuller rock music sense serious Sesame Street show business sion social speech story symbolic tele telegraph television commercial television program television screen television show television's thing tion tradition truth typographic viewers visual Walter Ong watch writing written word York