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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 23
Page 6
... story I have to tell is anywhere near the whole truth . We are all , as Huxley says someplace , Great Abbreviators , meaning that none of us has the wit to know the whole truth , the time to tell it if we believed we did , or an ...
... story I have to tell is anywhere near the whole truth . We are all , as Huxley says someplace , Great Abbreviators , meaning that none of us has the wit to know the whole truth , the time to tell it if we believed we did , or an ...
Page 57
... story would have chosen Daniel Webster to contend with the Devil . How could the Devil triumph over a man whose lan- guage , described by Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story , had the following characteristics ? ... his clearness and ...
... story would have chosen Daniel Webster to contend with the Devil . How could the Devil triumph over a man whose lan- guage , described by Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story , had the following characteristics ? ... his clearness and ...
Page 103
... story has any implications , for that would require viewers to continue to think about it when it is done and therefore obstruct their attending to the next story that waits panting in the wings . In any case , viewers are not pro ...
... story has any implications , for that would require viewers to continue to think about it when it is done and therefore obstruct their attending to the next story that waits panting in the wings . In any case , viewers are not pro ...
Contents
The Medium Is the Metaphor | 3 |
Media as Epistemology | 16 |
Typographic America | 30 |
Copyright | |
11 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
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