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 19
... produce in a courtroom where " serious " matters are to be decided . Can you imagine a bailiff asking a jury if it has reached a decision and receiving the reply that " to err is human but to forgive is divine " ? Or even better , " Let ...
... produce in a courtroom where " serious " matters are to be decided . Can you imagine a bailiff asking a jury if it has reached a decision and receiving the reply that " to err is human but to forgive is divine " ? Or even better , " Let ...
Page 35
... produce such collective attention in today's America is the Superbowl . It is worth pausing here for a moment to say something of Thomas Paine , for in an important way he is a measure of the high and wide level of literacy that existed ...
... produce such collective attention in today's America is the Superbowl . It is worth pausing here for a moment to say something of Thomas Paine , for in an important way he is a measure of the high and wide level of literacy that existed ...
Page 84
... produce ? These are the questions to be addressed in the rest of this book , and to approach them with a minimum of confusion , I must begin by making a distinction between a technology and a medium . We might say that a technology is ...
... produce ? These are the questions to be addressed in the rest of this book , and to approach them with a minimum of confusion , I must begin by making a distinction between a technology and a medium . We might say that a technology is ...
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