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 148
... learning is now taking place . Which leads to the second point I wish to emphasize : The conse- quences of this reorientation are to be observed not only in the decline of the potency of the classroom but , paradoxically , in the ...
... learning is now taking place . Which leads to the second point I wish to emphasize : The conse- quences of this reorientation are to be observed not only in the decline of the potency of the classroom but , paradoxically , in the ...
Page 151
... learning increases when informa- tion is presented in a dramatic setting , and that television can do this better than any other medium . " The most charitable response to this claim is that it is misleading . George Comstock and his ...
... learning increases when informa- tion is presented in a dramatic setting , and that television can do this better than any other medium . " The most charitable response to this claim is that it is misleading . George Comstock and his ...
Page 154
... learning is a form of entertainment or , more precisely , that anything worth learning can take the form of an entertainment , and ought to . And they will not rebel if their English teacher asks them to learn the eight parts of speech ...
... learning is a form of entertainment or , more precisely , that anything worth learning can take the form of an entertainment , and ought to . And they will not rebel if their English teacher asks them to learn the eight parts of speech ...
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