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
... thought itself . Thought in any extended form is impossible without them , for it consists in them . " ' 5 To people like ourselves any reliance on proverbs and sayings is reserved largely for resolving disputes among or with chil- dren ...
... thought itself . Thought in any extended form is impossible without them , for it consists in them . " ' 5 To people like ourselves any reliance on proverbs and sayings is reserved largely for resolving disputes among or with chil- dren ...
Page 25
... thought to be quaint at best , more likely pompous bores . In a purely oral culture , a high value is always placed on the power to memorize , for where there are no written words , the human mind must function as a mobile library . To ...
... thought to be quaint at best , more likely pompous bores . In a purely oral culture , a high value is always placed on the power to memorize , for where there are no written words , the human mind must function as a mobile library . To ...
Page 51
... thought , which requires considerable powers of classifying , inference - making and reasoning . It means to uncover ... thought is too busy for that , and too detached . I do not mean to imply that prior to the written word analytic ...
... thought , which requires considerable powers of classifying , inference - making and reasoning . It means to uncover ... thought is too busy for that , and too detached . I do not mean to imply that prior to the written word analytic ...
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