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 20
... traditions based on the notion that speech is the pri- mary carrier of truth . But for the most part , university ... tradition is carried forward in the assumption that a candidate must be able to talk competently about his written ...
... traditions based on the notion that speech is the pri- mary carrier of truth . But for the most part , university ... tradition is carried forward in the assumption that a candidate must be able to talk competently about his written ...
Page 66
... tradition of news as reasoned ( if biased ) political opinion and urgent commercial information and filled their pages with accounts of sensational events , mostly con- cerning crime and sex . While such " human interest news " played ...
... tradition of news as reasoned ( if biased ) political opinion and urgent commercial information and filled their pages with accounts of sensational events , mostly con- cerning crime and sex . While such " human interest news " played ...
Page 124
... traditions " for " great authors of the past , " this quotation may stand as the decisive critique of tele- vised ... traditional religious conceptions into manic and trivial displays ? I have already referred to Cardinal O'Con- nor's ...
... traditions " for " great authors of the past , " this quotation may stand as the decisive critique of tele- vised ... traditional religious conceptions into manic and trivial displays ? I have already referred to Cardinal O'Con- nor's ...
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