Politics and Television Commercials: A Changed Perception

In Postman’s argument, he describes the way in which politics’ perception has changed. Instead of politics being seen as connected to legitimate arguments, it is seen as being shaped and influenced more by external societal factors and images, especially by those found in television commercials. Similar to how a business works, politics has become linked with capitalistic ideals through the presence of television commercials in order to give viewers a sense of value and identity. As a result, both commercial and political advertising influences the public more through instant images that arise our immediate emotions than through actual claims or propositions. Therefore, people look at politics and politicians as a source of amusement instead of sources knowledge to better understand political issues and

Although I agree that many people look to political images passively and “quick” solution to reflect their own self interests in the bits of information that are filtered through television commercial, but there seems to be lack of understanding in the active choice of the matter. Yes, one cannot simply turn off the television to keep from being affected due to the discourse found within human interaction, but there is an active individual choice to the degree of influence and whether not to accept such political discourses as entertainment. Postman stated that, “One can like or dislike a television commercial, of course. But one cannot refute it.” Therefore, according to Postman, there is no reasonable alternative than to become entangled in the influence of television commercial. But if television is indeed a form of communication, then it contains both truth and lies of society that can either be actively accepted or disproved by the individual. Television, therefore, is an outlet that offers insight into the views and beliefs of others.Whether that is in the form of emotional images or logical propositions, they can either