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 55
... religious inspiration . Finney , for example , was no " backcountry rustic , " as he was sometimes characterized by ... religious life in America , then let there be more of it . In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries , religious ...
... religious inspiration . Finney , for example , was no " backcountry rustic , " as he was sometimes characterized by ... religious life in America , then let there be more of it . In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries , religious ...
Page 121
... religious credo . There is no great religious leader - from the Buddha to Moses to Jesus to Mohammed to Luther - who offered people what they want . Only what they need . But television is not well suited to offering people what they ...
... religious credo . There is no great religious leader - from the Buddha to Moses to Jesus to Mohammed to Luther - who offered people what they want . Only what they need . But television is not well suited to offering people what they ...
Page 124
... religion " for Hamlet , and the phrase " great religious traditions " for " great authors of the past , " this quotation may stand as the decisive critique of tele- vised religion . There is no doubt , in other words , that religion can ...
... religion " for Hamlet , and the phrase " great religious traditions " for " great authors of the past , " this quotation may stand as the decisive critique of tele- vised religion . There is no doubt , in other words , that religion can ...
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