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 79
... question of how television affects us has receded into the background . The question itself may strike some of us as strange , as if one were to ask how having ears and eyes affects us . Twenty years ago , the question , Does television ...
... question of how television affects us has receded into the background . The question itself may strike some of us as strange , as if one were to ask how having ears and eyes affects us . Twenty years ago , the question , Does television ...
Page 97
... question being , Who KO'd whom ? The answer was determined by the " style " of the men - how they looked , fixed their gaze , smiled , and delivered one - liners . In the second debate , President Reagan got off a swell one - liner when ...
... question being , Who KO'd whom ? The answer was determined by the " style " of the men - how they looked , fixed their gaze , smiled , and delivered one - liners . In the second debate , President Reagan got off a swell one - liner when ...
Page 162
... question is put to them , they appear puzzled , as if one had asked , When were trees invented , or clouds ? It is ... question , How can we use television ( or the computer , or word processor ) to control edu- cation ? They have not ...
... question is put to them , they appear puzzled , as if one had asked , When were trees invented , or clouds ? It is ... question , How can we use television ( or the computer , or word processor ) to control edu- cation ? They have not ...
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