Re: Neil Postmans Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Haven’t read it, sounds like a good read! Next on my list right after I finish “Do the Right Thing” by Mike Huckabee.
Would had been nice if the “Elephants” had some backbone BEFORE the election (say, 2005 to 2008).
What Postman does is demonstrates how the nature of the media (i.e. the ‘technology’) influences not only the message but even the content and the material that is covered.
For instance, smoke signals convey very little information. They aren’t much of a medium for discussion of philosophy. The form excludes the content. But, says Postman, neither is television a good medium for philosophical discussion: people want to see colors; they want to see attractive people, etc. It turns out IT’S form excludes content, too. Postman argues that television has dramatically dumbed down communication compared to the printed word. Literate generations enjoyed lengthy debate; today’s age is quickly bored with it.
He shows how communication in imagery is dramatically different from communication in writing. And points out that the more “serious” television tries to be, the worse and more dangerous it becomes.
He also argues that - beginning with the advent of the telegraph - “news” has been totally changed. We are now exposed to events that people in the past would have neither known about or cared about.
You combine the distortions due to the above with naked bias, and you get something genuinely dangerous to civilization.