Peole

After reading part one of Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman, I became curious about whether the way we receive information affects the way we understand and interpret it. In his book, Postman argued that not enough people are discussing the effects of the ever-increasing amount of information we have available to us, particularly through television. He believes that Americans are presented with a lot of irrelevant information overload. I specifically wanted to analyze the effect that television and other forms of multimedia technology have had on the delivery of news. A great deal has changed in television since Postman wrote the book in 1985, and I wanted to know what is being said today about the increasing prominence of television as a method of communication by synthesizing information provided by Matt Quayle and Mark Kelley.

The postman has certain veneration for the period in history from the seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century, when America was dominated by the printed word. The press existed as a monopoly. It was the model the metaphor and the measure of all discourse. The resonance of the printed word could be felt everywhere and Postman’s crucial point is that conversational style of this period came to mirror the writing style found in the press. He demonstrates how the content of the printing press in America was once, coherent serious and rational and how, under the governance of television that tries to be serious it has become shriveled and absurd. The press created a serious and rational public discourse. The postman’s assertion is that people in their multitudes, under the irresistible influence of the resonance of the press were always ready and willing to listen to public speakers performing oratory for hours on end in the name of the furtherance of political education. A tradition developed, especially in the Western states where a speaker would find a stump or an equivalent open space, gather an audience and take the...