12/20/2023 0 Comments Entertaining ourselves to death book![]() Once we recognize that forms of media wield this kind of power, we will be able to resist the urge to “entertain ourselves to death. Rather, he believes that Americans can save themselves by becoming aware of the potential television has to permanently stymie rational discussion. Postman concludes his book by acknowledging that television cannot and should not be simply eradicated. Politics, news, religion, education, economics-all of it is subject to the rule that entertainment is king. Because TV is a form of entertainment media, all information has now become entertainment. Once television became ubiquitous, says Postman, the decline of cultural discourse rapidly became apparent. Lantz Amusing Ourselves to Death Guiding Questions Amusing Ourselves to Death Discussion Questions Students must answer 6 questions for each chapter students must answer all of the questions for the chapters that have fewer than 6 questions. Now people had ways of getting information instantaneously-information that was decontextualized, often irrelevant, and incapable of dealing with difficult abstractions and interpretations. The observations were made in a pre-internet era, and theyre 10x as relevant today. With the invention of the telegraph and the photograph, however, print lost its monopoly. Debates were longer and more thoughtful, and the monopoly of print produced a highly literate society. Because form has an effect on content, and print is a rational form of communication, print culture was more rational. Postman discusses how discourse worked when America was a print culture. ![]() In other words, the medium of information-whether it’s speech, print, sound, image, etc.-has an effect on the information itself. Orwell’s vision of the future-where government overreach is responsible for the death of free speech and thought-is scary, but ultimately incorrect.įrom here Postman build off the work of famous media theorist Marshall McLuhan, who wrote that “the medium is the message.” Postman agrees with McLuhan, and echoes his argument that the form of a medium determines its content. Unlike another dystopian novelist, George Orwell, Huxley foresaw that we would eventually be destroyed by that which we love most: entertainment, leisure, and laughter. Postman’s book Amusing Ourselves to Death opens by saying that Aldous Huxley’s vision of the future in his book, Brave New World, is one we ought to pay close attention to. Postman begins his book by summarizing George Orwell ’s 1949 dystopian novel 1984, as well as Aldous Huxley ’s (also dystopian) 1932 novel Brave New World. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |