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 127
... claims , rational decision - making is seriously impaired . Of course , the practice of capitalism has its contradictions . Cartels and monopolies , for example , undermine the theory . But television commercials make hash of it . To ...
... claims , rational decision - making is seriously impaired . Of course , the practice of capitalism has its contradictions . Cartels and monopolies , for example , undermine the theory . But television commercials make hash of it . To ...
Page 128
... claim is simply not an issue . A McDonald's commercial , for example , is not a series of testable , logically ordered ... claims are made , except those the viewer projects onto or infers from the drama . One can like or dislike a ...
... claim is simply not an issue . A McDonald's commercial , for example , is not a series of testable , logically ordered ... claims are made , except those the viewer projects onto or infers from the drama . One can like or dislike a ...
Page 150
... claims of its benefits come trippingly from their tongues . Janice Trebbi Richards of Holt , Rinehart and Winston ... claim that the appeal of integrating three media— television , print , and computers - lies in their potential for ...
... claims of its benefits come trippingly from their tongues . Janice Trebbi Richards of Holt , Rinehart and Winston ... claim that the appeal of integrating three media— television , print , and computers - lies in their potential for ...
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