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 148
... teaching , including continuity and perplexity , none is more formidable than exposition . Argu- ments , hypotheses , discussions , reasons , refutations or any of the traditional instruments of reasoned discourse turn television into ...
... teaching , including continuity and perplexity , none is more formidable than exposition . Argu- ments , hypotheses , discussions , reasons , refutations or any of the traditional instruments of reasoned discourse turn television into ...
Page 151
... teachers to use in conjunction with each program . The dramatizations were com- pelling - although not nearly as good ... teacher with enough linguistic aberrations to fill a se- mester's worth of analysis . Nonetheless , the Department ...
... teachers to use in conjunction with each program . The dramatizations were com- pelling - although not nearly as good ... teacher with enough linguistic aberrations to fill a se- mester's worth of analysis . Nonetheless , the Department ...
Page 154
... teacher asks them to learn the eight parts of speech through the medium of rock music . Or if their social studies teacher sings to them the facts about the War of 1812. Or if their physics comes to them on cookies and T - shirts ...
... teacher asks them to learn the eight parts of speech through the medium of rock music . Or if their social studies teacher sings to them the facts about the War of 1812. Or if their physics comes to them on cookies and T - shirts ...
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