Neil Postman, "Amusing Ourselves to Death -- Public discourse in the age of show-business" This book is a classic: everybody knows it, and everything has been written about it. Let me write some more. Postman's book caused a lot of public discussion in the mid-eighties, but it is now as relevant as ever, possibly more so. Today, it has almost become an axiom of our society that the answer to the questions raised by our technological advances lie in the application of further technology, some of it
Public identity and opinions are formed through the rapid circulation of information. The emergence of new forms of communication have profound effects on society by drastically shaping the social landscape though rapid information transmission. Gabriel Tarde described the formation of publics as resulting from accelerated information transmission following the introduction of the railroad, printing press and telegraph which “perfected instantaneous transmission of thought from any distance” (31)
should be able to speak up on a public setting and state their case. Whether they should possess the ability to freely protest or not, depends on if their argument will be detrimental or beneficial to the minds of a multitude of the population. This process of deciding the worth of a speech should consist of a group of experts who are concerned with the topic at hand. Now, I insist that experts of the subjects of speeches should decide the fate of these discourses, because they understand better
important function the media served for the Aboriginal community was creating an ‘Indigenous public sphere.’ “The concept of the “Indigenous public sphere” described the highly mediated public “space” for evolving notions of Indigeneity. It was the civil society of a nation without formal borders, state institutions, or citizens.” (Hartley, 2004, Pg. 12) Hartley argues this environment for cultural discourse was essentially bought about through the evolving position of mediums such as TV to adapt to
digital computers.2 News delivery is present on every communication medium. I will look at the difference in value of the content between the media. And I will explain how the World Wide Web — as a new invocational medium — will bring back a public discourse based on logic and reason. And how it will re-democratize the libertarian press. Comparative Descriptions In published media — the oldest technological news distribution method — news is provided on a physical support on which alphabetical
British TV Drama To what extent has British television drama contributed to a public discourse on major political and social issues, both in the recent past and during the 1960s. Please draw on specific examples in presenting your argument. In this essay I will discuss how political and social issues have been raised in British television drama and also how they relate to public discourse in Britain. I will discuss TV dramas such as Our Friends in the North, Talking to a Stranger, Cathy Come
Amusing Ourselves to Death: It's Time to Stop Laughing The form of communication created by the television is not only a part of how our modern society communicates, but is has changed public discourse to the point that it has completely redefined it, argued Neil Postman in his convincing book Amusing Ourselves to Death. He viewed this as very harmful, and additionally so because our society is ignorant of it as they quickly becomes engulfed in its epistemology. When faced with the question
The Importance of Exile in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney To be a poet in a culture obsessed with politics is a risky business. Investing poetry with the heavy burden of public meaning only frustrates its flight: however tempting it is to employ one's poetic talent in the service of a program or an ideology, the result usually has little to do with poetry. This is not to condemn the so-called "literature of engagement"; eye-opening and revealing, it has served its purpose in the unfinished story
the dominant political, economical and cultural force in the 21st century." Quote from "Globalism: The New Market Ideology" by Manfred D.Steger, Page 6 Globalization is one of the most charged issues of the day. It is everywhere in public discourse - in TV sound bites and slogans on placards, in web-sites and learned journals, in parliaments, corporate boardrooms and labor meeting halls. Extreme opponents charge it with impoverishing the world's poor, enriching the wealthy, and devastating
anything that is indecent, or to send anything indecent with "intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass" ("Stop the Communications ..." n.p.). The goal of this bill as written (though not as stated by its proponents) is to try to make all public discourse on the Internet suitable for young children. The issue of whether is it necessary to have censorship on the Internet is being argued all over the world. There are numerous homepages on the World Wide Web discussing this issue, or asking people
happily surrendering ourselves to it, Americans are losing the ability to conduct and participate in meaningful, rational public discourse and public affairs. Or, to put it another way, TV is undoing public discourse and, as the title of his book Amusing Ourselves to Death suggests, we are willing accomplices. Postman bases his argument on the belief that public discourse in America, when governed by the epistemology of the printing press, was "generally coherent, serious, and rational" (16)
The Power of Discourse in a Political Sex Scandal On August 12th, 2004 New Jersey Governor James McGreevey became this nation's first openly gay state governor. Several moments after he stated, "I am a gay American", he succumbed to intense political and public pressure by announcing his resignation from New Jersey's most powerful position. This announcement and resignation came after a week of intense allegations that McGreevey sexually harassed a male colleague whom he had appointed. While
Critical Discourse Analysis Jan blommaert and Chris Bulcaen makes a brief introduction to the study of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). CDA intends to use social-theoretical method in discourse analysis and is primarily linguistically based (Blommaet & Bulcaen, 2000, p.447). It intends to analyze the structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control through a textual study (Blommaet & Bulcaen, 2000, p.448). Based on the assumption that social discourse is constructed and
topic, which resulted in the creation of legislation prohibiting "conspicuous" signs of religious affiliation in public schools. This article of law, was pointedly aimed at young Muslim girls who wore the hijab in state schools. Proponents of the law argued that it was a defence of laicite, a French principle which is described as delegating religion to the private sphere, and out of the public civic sphere. Joan Wallach Scott writes, that such legislation, or separation is the state acting to protect
Adding a scientific theory to a public discourse contributes a whole new layer of complication to the agency of those receiving the message. Think Galileo-- he was ostracized for proving, and then advocating for, the fact that the Earth rotates around the sun. Eventually though, science prevailed and the world came around (in it’s opinion, not another orbit around the sun). Although it takes time, science can be supported and proven by other scientists, who then have an obligation to persuade the
civilization” (63). Postman’s main argument here is that the power of typography has the ability to control discourse. When language is controlled by print, an idea, a fact, or a claim is the result. And today we have this unrelenting demand to understand and know everything we are presented with. Print gave priority to the intellectual and rational mind, therefore encouraging serious, logical public discourse. Postman supports this claim by arguing that the Thomas Paine’s “Age of Reason”, a written pamphlet
news coverage, and literary works). Recent scholarly articles and books have attempted to correct this verbalist imbalance by examining the genres and discourses of nuclear art (e.g., painting), cinema and photography. Collectively, this work establishes that the Bomb is -- after W.J.T. Mitchell -- an "imagetext" in which verbal and iconic discourses interanimate to produce ways of (not) seeing and forms of (not) feeling that have historically positioned cultural subjects in relation to the technologies
Niccolò Machiavelli thoroughly discusses the importance of religion in the formation and maintenance of political authority in his famous works, The Prince and The Discourses. In his writing on religion, he states that religion is beneficiary in the formation of political authority and political leaders must support and endorse religion in order to maintain power. However, Machiavelli also critiques corrupt religious institutions that become involved in politics and in turn, cause corruption in the
are not equally represented in this specific case of international terrorism. If the media and powerful authority figures are controlling the public discourse of international affairs, rhetorical culture is very much shaped by how the powerheads control our ability to think and act. I propose that in order to “[restore] democracy through public [discourse].... ‘all citizens [are] entitled to participate in the process of political dialogues [be present]” in order to deliberate and construct a truth
of BGEs from a discourse perspective. The findings of this study suggest that, although their discourse predominated during the guided visits, the diverse communicative approaches adopted and the variety of questions asked revealed the complexity of their pedagogical practices. Firstly, the analysis based on the four classes of communicative approach has revealed that the BGE discourse was interactive and authoritative in nature. Despite the fact that interactive/dialogic discourse was occasionally