Postman: Rant or Reason? Essay -- Essays Papers

Postman Rant or Reason? In his novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, author Neil Postman describes to the reader, in detail, the immediate and future dangers of television. The arguement starts out in a logical manner, explaining first the differences between todays media-driven hostel, and yesterdays typographic America. Postman goes on to discuss in the here and now half of his book the effects of todays media, politics on television, religion on television, and finally televised educational programs. All, he says, be making a detrimental strike on our society, its values, and its standards. Postman explains that the media consists of fragments of news (100), and politics are merely a fashion put down. Although Postmans arguments regarding the brevity of the American attention span and the impotence of todays mass media are logical, his opinion of televisions inability to educate is severely overstated. Neil Postman is right on the mark when he states that television is having a n overall negative effect on our society It promotes short attention spans. Postman takes as example for this argument the seven famous debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. In that time, Postman explains, audiences would cheerfully accomodate themselves to seven hours of language (44). This is a concept entirely unknown to todays society. In no stretch of the imagination would a sizeable crowd possibly willingly subject themselves to such a lengthy activity. The reason for this anomaly is television. A brief peek at any private television broadcasting station will show the reason Were having entertainment fed to us in tiny portions. During each thirty or sixty minutes, our favorite sit-com family winds its way throug... ...not one posed by television, but by the potential for the public to overlook the positive qualities of television. Televised education has, despite its need for a short leash, a fair amount of useable applications. Postman must look past the negative image of television-zombie children in order to see the true potential beneath. That said, it is safe to add that network television would still benefit greatly from large handful of additional Postman-influence.Works CitedFowles, Jib. Advertisings Fifteen Basic Appeals. Common cultivation, 3rd Edition.Ed. Petracca, Michael, and Sorapure, Madeleine. New Jersey Prentice Hall, 2001. 60-77. Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam. New York William Morrow and Company Inc, 1999. Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death. New York Penguin Books, 1985. Schwartz, Tony. Media The Second God. New York Random House, 1981.