Truth Exposed in Amusing Ourselves to Death Essay

Since television came into existence, it has evolved into a useful tool to spread ideas, both social and political, and has had a great effect on the generations growing up with these heavily influential shows. To these younger generations, television has taken the role of a teacher, with the task of creating a social construction by which many of us base our personal beliefs and judgments on. This power allows television shows take the opportunity to address problems in a manner that many audiences can take to heart. Many television shows present controversial topics in a comical matter, in some ways to soften the blow of hard-hitting reality at the same time bringing attention to the issue being addressed. In the television show,

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

Knowledge has come about through many different forms throughout history and has constantly changed along with the times. To equate media to epistemology is to say how media relates to how we understand knowledge. In this chapter, Neil Postman discusses how modern media has created an epistemological shift and whether it has affected us for better or for worse. Postman argues that this shift has altered the structure of discourse no differently than how every new medium before it has always done.

In their article “Moving beyond the 'Vast Wasteland'”, Laurie Ouellette and Justin Lewis critique how public broadcasting functions in the US. Liberal reformers hold to the view that television needs protection from commercialism. The liberal reformer view contains cultural and class hierarchies. They believe that public television is for the white, college-educated middle-class viewer who has “cultural capital”(Ouellette & Lewis, 96). As a result, funding for public broadcasting has gone primarily towards high culture and intellectual programs and not sitcoms or other popular forms of television. Ouellette and Lewis disagree with this, saying that these types of high-brow programming are not the only ones worthy of public investment. Instead, they argue that popular programs that are being commercially maintained also merit public support and investment (96). Rather than reserving public broadcasting for more educational programming, the authors argue that there is a more progressive solution that can incorporate popular media forms while still veering away from commercialization.

Even though corruption has always occurred amongst the human race, it was not as bearing on a person's everyday life until media made it possible for them to be communicated at a faster pace. In this chapter Postman explains how we have turned from the "Age of Typography" to the "Age of Television" and how the young require all communication to be in the form of entertainment (p.8). He implies that our form of speaking works through "media-metaphors" which do not tell us what the world is like, but instead tells us what it is like without telling us anything. They limit and regulate what the world must be (p.10).

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.

Part one is concerned mostly with background and historical analysis. In Chapter one, "The Medium is the Metaphor," Postman introduces the concept of the media-metaphor. He suggests that an oral culture will speak of the world differently than one that has printed language. It is all an introduction for his basic examination, which aims to show how the television age is undergoing a rapid transformation in the wake of the relatively new media of television. In Chapter two, "Media as Epistemology," Postman examines how any civilization's media will determine the way in which it defines truth.

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?

In the book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman states his thesis, "All public discourse increasingly takes the form of entertainment which has out us in a position where we are "slowly amusing ourselves to death”. By this, he means that the media has negatively affected the level of public discourse in contemporary America, and it considers media in a larger context to achieve that. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a foretelling look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.

We have a tendency to block out the things that we do not agree with in the world. As the years pass, our society has drastically molded into a primarily selfish, disappointing species of humans that does little more than promote slander and hatred towards one another. Nevertheless, we are not hopeless. There remain millions of individuals who seek out the favorable facets in the world and strive to not only nourish themselves, but to nourish the world around them. Although Barbara Ehrenreich believes that television inaccurately portrays the day-to-day lives that Americans live, the reality is that there are devastating truths behind the brainwashing images that plague our minds.

For one thing, like the photograph, the television is a visual medium. While the photo is “context-free” it captures only a frozen moment in time. Whereas television is a series of images, on average only 3.5 seconds long; the eye repetitively sees and expects new pictures (p. 86). On The Day After panel as serious as the subject was, would not have lent itself to Carl Sagan, possibly the best known scientist of the time, to respond, “let me think about it.” Can anyone imagine any television panelist ever having the camera focused on him or her while pondering for even just a few minutes before an answer? Postman declares, taking a moment to pause to consider a response to a question does not make for good television.(p. 90). Television is more about presenting discourse as a performing art. Therefore, comprehension requires a low skill level, thus inhibiting deep thinking and is more about emotional gratification over enhancing intellect (p. 87). In other words, the medium of television by its very nature must suppress the deep thought, the “content of ideas”, all in the name of “show business” (p.

Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, discusses how the media has altered the world. The book, written in 1985, applies to the twenty-first century regarding how television, computers, phones, and many other technologies have affected the world. In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman discusses technologies and media. Modern media seduces and imprisons Americans and transforms them from citizens into consumers.

Over the last forty to fifty years, television has been a major topic of discussion. Specifically, many debate societal benefits to television watching. One widely accepted opinion is that watching TV makes people dumber. People have referred to it with terms like the “idiot box” and do not feel that watching TV has any benefit at all. They feel that it is a waste of time and people need to spend their hours more wisely. Others are of the opinion that TV is actually has societal benefits. From this perspective, they claim that the development of the structure of the programs now requires one to intellectually participate in watching television. Essentially, the argument is whether TV is a beneficial societal force or is it simply a

Chin-Yi Chung states in her essay, “Hyperreality, the Question of Agency, and the Phenomenon of Reality Television.” that, “...it is existential banality and the boredom of our own lives that we desire as spectacle….In elevating the banal to spectacle, we are elevating ourselves as media objects.” (Chung 33) Similarly, news media, which one would expect to be a dose of objective reality, follows the same developments as other media. Mark Peace of Aberystwyth University writes, “This is a telltale sign of construction of reality by news broadcasters in two ways: firstly all the events of the world are obviously not bad (if the news is to be believed, the world is complete hell); the second indicator is the way in which broadcasters structure around the ideological rather than the concrete.”(Peace, n.p.) This further complicates one’s ability to identify the constructed reality that spans the globe. Although some proponents may argue that technological advances in media could lead to a utopian society, substance and critical thinking are rapidly declining because these same advances have reshaped one’s ability to perceive or desire reality clearly.

Yet, while consuming this entertainment, I also find myself aware of my own media literacy. As someone who grew up in a “newsy” household, I would say that my media literacy, or “the process of interacting with and critically analyzing media content by considering its particular presentation, its underlying political or social messages, and its ownership or regulation issues that may affect what is presented and in what form” (39), has always been strong. Yet, as I moved through my day, I was more aware of my own biases. While before I would have congratulated myself on being well informed, now I know that most of my day’s intake is specifically linked to my need for mental entertainment. Furthermore, I can identify the biases influencing my media intake. My father is a one time journalist who became an educator, and much of yesterday’s conversation was framed by our mutual experiences in education. While we watched news shows with more liberal framing, we also experienced an “echo