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 50
... language is the principal medium of communication — especially language con- trolled by the rigors of print — an idea , a fact , a claim is the inevitable result . The idea may be banal , the fact irrelevant , the claim false , but ...
... language is the principal medium of communication — especially language con- trolled by the rigors of print — an idea , a fact , a claim is the inevitable result . The idea may be banal , the fact irrelevant , the claim false , but ...
Page 72
... language . " The meta- phor is risky because it tends to obscure the fundamental differ- ences between the two modes of conversation . To begin with , photography is a language that speaks only in particularities . Its vocabulary of ...
... language . " The meta- phor is risky because it tends to obscure the fundamental differ- ences between the two modes of conversation . To begin with , photography is a language that speaks only in particularities . Its vocabulary of ...
Page 73
... language . Language makes sense only when it is presented as a sequence of propositions . Meaning is distorted when a word or sentence is , as we say , taken out of context ; when a reader or listener is deprived of what was said before ...
... language . Language makes sense only when it is presented as a sequence of propositions . Meaning is distorted when a word or sentence is , as we say , taken out of context ; when a reader or listener is deprived of what was said before ...
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