Amusing Ourselves To Death By Neil Postman

In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman uses an abundant amount of logos to argue his claim. The more that is read, the more difficult it is to dismiss his information. This is because of the consistent use of evidence presented in the form of logos. The entire book is incorporated with facts, statistics, dates, and general logical arguments. In chapter six, Postman stresses how television does not allow for the processing of thoughts. He states, “I should like to illustrate this point by offering the case of the eighty-minute discussion provided by the ABC network on November 20, 1983, following its controversial movie The Day After” (88). The discussion was broadcasted on television with intentions to have valued informational content, but failed miserably according to Postman. He argued this in a logical manner. The discussion lacked deep conversation and the speakers spoke in generalities, as the show did not allow an adequate amount of time. This is a great use of logos because it

     But, for most part, author feel television is 'drug'; that is corrupting today's society. Many of us fail to recognize how it has caused the decline of family rituals, the avoidance of relationships and the destruction of the family. Our addiction to this daily habit cause us to escape the real world.

“Televised events like the Super Bowl, the Olympics and the World Cup give us a rare opportunity to share a moment in time with the world,” proclaims Tim Leberecht of www.designmind.com (Leberecht). With our busy lives, we almost never take out time to spend with our loved ones, and these televised events are when the majority of people meet up and have fun. “Millie? Does the White Clown love you? Does your ‘family’ love you, love you with all their heart and soul, Millie?” Montag asks Mildred (Bradbury 77). Guy Montag is questioning his wife out of desperation, and is extremely curious to know if she believes that her fake TV family really loves her. From this we can see that he is truly disappointed with life and his wife’s immoral addiction to television. We must keep in mind that our society today is not as dumbed down and obsessed with fake parlor shows that spread real, tangible people apart as Mildred is. TV today is a source of knowledge and learning, and creates the perfect circumstances and settings for the getting together of the people that really matter the most. One of the most important aspects of television is its ability to strengthen democracy and teach the law. “Seventy-two percent (of the US population) learn about elections and candidates from TV news,” states www.designmind.com (Leberecht). TV brings us information that is essential to maintaining our freedom and our guaranteed

Postman made it clear that his book is not an attack on the television itself. Instead he asserted that, supplied by the television's form, it is the change in the definition of how we learn, and thus perceive, the world around us that is under his criticism. When it comes to entertainment, Postman admitted that the television does an excellent job. "Television [...] serves us most usefully when presenting junk-entertainment; it serves us most ill when it co-opts serious modes of discourse-news, politics, science, education, commerce, religion-and turns them into entertainment packages" (159). The television does not require viewers to carry thoughts from minute to minute, and their eyes are never unstimulated, as the average duration of a camera view is a mere 3.5 seconds (86). Such brevity of thought and picture are a drastic difference from the way we used to get our information. That is, through the monopoly of the print media. Then contiguous information, uninterrupted by advertisements and thoughts not spliced into sentence-long segments, was expressed from cover to cover. Now, the kind of information (or misinformation) we are accustomed to receiving via the television set is redefining the way we receive and perceive information. It is not

Further on in the chapter, Postman does not really believe that the content that is show on television is the actual problem. Since the real problem is not watch people watch, then this brings on the thought that we can find the solution in the way that we watch television programming. (160). Postman believes that this world has not discovered what television actually is as a type of technology, and as a result, there have not been many conversations about this.

Postman says that, as a result, "all public understanding of these subjects is shaped by the biases of television" (78) and that in the absence of rational discourse, cultural decay is sure to follow.

All throughout history we have used metaphors to describe people, places, events and emotions; so it is perfectly fitting to describe the mediums with which we project our ideas as a metaphor as well. This is Neil Postman 's basis for his book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Television and other media outlets have conditioned us to accept entertainment in every aspect of life; but most of all it masks the state of public affairs and politics. Through his book, Postman begs that we recognize the ways in which media shapes our lives and how we can use them to serve us instead of hurt us. Broken into two parts, Amusing Ourselves to Death focuses on a historical analysis of media, then discusses the television media-metaphor in more detail. Postman examines how media has infected every aspect of public discourse by prizing entertainment as the standard of truth.

“How often does it occur that information provided you on morning radio or television, or in the morning newspaper, causes you to alter your plans for the day, or to take some action you would not otherwise have taken, or provides insight into some problem you are required to solve?... Most of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action” (68). Postman defines this has a sense of decontextualized information. He suggests that while we feel connected to the information of the news of the day because it inspires opinions from us, we’re actually not. As the quote details, we cannot do much about the information we receive because we have no context in which to

Neil postman does not think television is completely harmful. He loves television for its “junk” because he says that

Prior to Postman giving his thought on how politics have been changed by television, he gives

Postman, the author of “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, discusses how the television has negatively affected discourse in America. He uses examples and historical research to make a claim of how it is effecting discourse. The chapter we are looking into does not relate to the television but rather the newspaper. His central claim of chapter four revolves around the newspaper. He talks about the effect on society and the

Opening the book, Postman explains how he will fulfill showing that a “great media-metaphor shift has taken place in America, with the result that content of much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense” (pg. 16). There are two major points First: under the printing press, discourse In America was different from what it is now—generally coherent, serious, rational. Second: under the governance of television, it has become withered. This made me think about how much media affects us on a daily basis.

Postman goes deep into television and its damaging effects on our culture. Postman says that when watching Television for entertainment only no harm is done, but when it tries to inform us that is when it can get dangerous. He goes into the history of technology and how it affected the past. His main focus throughout the book is that the media shapes our culture directly. We tend not to see just how media does this; we just keep thinking that everything that happens on TV is ?ok? and ?normal?

He decries how we are presented not only with fragmented news but news without context, consequences, value, leaving behind crucial seriousness. The most abhorrent story yet will only receive a short bit of attention only to be abstracted from the next story. There is no time for reflection and the captivating expression of the news- adorable news anchors, amiable music, brilliant transitions- only reinforce the idea that the information we receive isn’t considered in the context of our lives. Postman articulates that the now this are words such as but not limited to, back to you, I’m going to leave it here, and that does it for now. In addition after reviewing the news segment from News 7 I witnessed the rapid transitions that Postman speaks of. Each segment lasted a total of perhaps nine seconds which told me it wasn’t crucial. Then the topic of the Mosque shooting in Quebec City, Canada made an appearance across the screen. This segment endured a time frame of approximately five minutes, longer than any other news article on News 7. If a topic last more than a few minutes I can assume that it may be significant to the

“The whole problem with news on television comes down to this all the words uttered in an hour of news coverage could be printed on one page of a newspaper”. The average news cast is only twenty-two minutes long,and that's not nearly enough time to cover the days events.In Neil Postman’s essay “The News” Postman talks about the structure,content,and goals and results of a television news cast. The news can be compared to the theatres in terms of its structure. According to Postman, “Music takes us immediately into the realm of the symbolic, a world that is not to be taken literally.”