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 13
... merely an echo of a speaking voice . It is another kind of voice altogether , a conjurer's trick of the first order . It must certainly have ap- peared that way to those who invented it , and that is why we should not be surprised that ...
... merely an echo of a speaking voice . It is another kind of voice altogether , a conjurer's trick of the first order . It must certainly have ap- peared that way to those who invented it , and that is why we should not be surprised that ...
Page 42
... merely influ- enced the form of public discourse . That does not say much unless one connects it to the more important idea that form will determine the nature of content . For those readers who may believe that this idea is too ...
... merely influ- enced the form of public discourse . That does not say much unless one connects it to the more important idea that form will determine the nature of content . For those readers who may believe that this idea is too ...
Page 74
... merely function as a sup- plement to language , but bid to replace it as our dominant means for construing , understanding , and testing reality . What Boorstin implies about the graphic revolution , I wish to make explicit here : The ...
... merely function as a sup- plement to language , but bid to replace it as our dominant means for construing , understanding , and testing reality . What Boorstin implies about the graphic revolution , I wish to make explicit here : The ...
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