Postman: Rant or Reason? Essay -- Essays Papers

mailman Rant or Reason? In his novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, author Neil Postman describes to the reader, in detail, the immediate and upcoming dangers of television. The arguement starts out in a logical manner, explaining first the differences between todays media-driven society, and yesterdays typographic America. Postman goes on to discuss in the second half(prenominal) of his book the essences of todays media, politics on television, religion on television, and finally televised educational programs. All, he says, are making a detrimental impression 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 show. Although Postmans arguments regarding the brevity of the American attention span and the impotence of todays push-down storage media are logical, his opinion of televisions inability to educate is severely overstated. Neil Postman is proper(ip) on the mark when he sta tes that television is having an overall negative effect on our society It promotes short attention spans. Postman takes as physical exercise 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 oratory (44). This is a concept entirely unmapped to todays society. In no stretch of the imagination would a sizeable multitude possibly willingly subject themselves to such a lengthy activity. The origin for this anomaly is television. A brief peek at any secluded television broadcasting station will show the reason Were having fun 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, exclusively by the potential for the public to overlook the positive qualities of television. Televised education has, disrespect its need for a short leash, a fair amount of profitable 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 meshing television would still benefit greatly from large handful of spare Postman-influence.Works CitedFowles, Jib. Advertisings Fifteen Basic Appeals. Common Culture, 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 abet God. New York Random House, 1981.