Post on 21-Dec-2015
Amusing Ourselves To DeathNeil Postman
Chapter 5
The Peak-A-Boo World
What two technological developments ushered in the
Age of Mass Communication
What two technological developments ushered in the Age of Mass Communication?
• The Telegraph
• The Photograph
The merging of the telegraph and the photograph furnished the watershed between the Age of Print and the Age of Television
In 1860’s days the manufactures ofcameras were most likely to be cabinet makers
This is a typical camera design from 1910-1930.
“I don’t understand Postman’s view that
telegraphy destroyed the
prevailing definition of information…and gave new meaning
to public discourse.”
What are Postman’s fundamental arguments?
• Telegraph began to change the nature of the information environment
How did the telegraph begin to alter the nature of the information environment?
• increased the quantity of information available and altered the quality of information
How did the telegraph begin to alter the nature of the information environment?
• increased the quantity of information available and altered the quality of information
• redefined what information was and began to create a de-
contextualized communication environment.
““Would you explain “dignified
irrelevance’ and amplified impotence’
as related to the telegraph”
Why did the telegraph make a
three-pronged attack on the typographic
definition of discourse?
The Demons of Discourse
Age of Print Definition of Information
• Relevance (Local)
• Coherent ( Embedded In Context - Not Merely Tied To The Moment)
• Potent
• (Tied To Personal and Community Affairs -Empowered Citizens To Act)
Age of Mass CommunicationDefinition of Information
• Irrelevance
• Why is what is happening in the country or the world more important than what is happening in our own communities?
The Research Suggests
“Only 8 percent of all newscasts about a truly local race,Defined as a U.S. House, state legislature, or regional office.
Lear CenterUniversity of Southern CaliforniaStudy News Coverage Prior to2004 General Elections
Age of Mass CommunicationDefinition of Information
• Dignified Irrelevance
• As relevance became less important as a criteria for capturing audience attention what criteria were elevated?
“I do not understand how the telegraph could change the content
of newspapers so much?
“Technological change is not additive; it is ecological, which means, it changes everything and is, therefore, too important to be left entirely in the hands of Bill Gates.”
Neil Postman
Local Begins to Take a Back-stage to the National & Global
Helped to redefine “news”
Contributed to a decontextualized information environment
“What does Postman mean when he says that telegraphy made public
discourse essentially incoherent?”
Age of Mass CommunicationDefinition of Information
• Incoherent (De-contextualized)
• “Up To The Moment”
• “News From Nowhere-Addressed To No One.”
• Less Likely To “Build Context”
What does de-contextualized mean?
What does de-contextualized mean?
• Not directly relevant or salient to individuals
• Not connected to the past or anticipated future.
• Information became transient and short-lived.
Age of Mass CommunicationDefinition of Information
• Impotent
• Less Basis For Managing Personal and Community Decision-Making
• Altered The Information-Action Ratio
What does it mean to say that something is “taken-out-of context?”
Information is Missing
The Answer Is
The Crossword Puzzle
The Question Is
What do Americans do to amuse themselves as a result of living in a country overwhelmed by irrelevance, incoherence,
and impotence?
“Postman says the most of the news of the day is irrelevant because it does not alter our lives. Sometimes, thought isn’t increasing one’s knowledge in and of itself worthwhile, even if it does not stir us to action.”
Channeling Neil Postman
“Of course there is always potential for knowing. Given that I lived all my life in Queens, New York, I might point out that the content of the average evening newscast will fill only two columns of the New York Times, and it is not the content of the information which is useless but rather the way in which the information is brought to the viewer which makes it less useful.”
“What happened to the “real news” if telegraphy and photography were
pseudo-news?
Channeling Neil Postman
“Let me tell you a story. When I was young I was a pretty good athlete, I particularly liked baseball and basketball. I remember during the summer we could often race home to read the evening newspapers to see if we “made headlines.” Each day the newspaper would run a five inch story summarizing the days happening in each of the four youth baseball leagues. I would guess a lot of news has gone the way of the youth baseball stories.”
“Postman says “to the telegraph intelligence meant knowing of things, but not knowing about them. Yet people’s own intelligence, interests, and attention span don’t allow for people to know about and understand great quantities of diversified information.”
Channeling Neal Postman
You argue that Americans do not possess the intelligence, interest, or attention span to allow for people to know about and understand great quantizes of diversified information. Perhaps you and your classmates would humor me by taking the following quiz?
Name that Movie
"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."
Name that Movie
"I'll be back."
Name That Movie
Can I borrow your underpants for ten minutes?"
Name that Movie
"Then close your eyes and tap your heels together three times. And think to yourself,
'There's no place like home'
Name that Movie
"You want answers?“
"I want the truth!“
"You can't handle the truth!"
Name that Movie
"Frankly, my dear. I don't give a damn."
Name that Movie
Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?"
Name that Movie
Life's a box of chocolates, . You never know what you're gonna get.
Name that Movie
You realize we're all going to go to college as virgins. They probably have special dorms for
people like us.
Name that Movie
“We're on a mission from God.”
Name that Movie
What?! Over? Did you say over? NOTHING is over until WE decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?HELL, NO!
What are the names of the six countries that border Iraq?
Who is the current President of Iraq?
A.B.
C. D.
Jalal Talabani
What was the name of Sadamn’s Hussein’s eldest son?
What was the name of Sadamn’s Hussein’s eldest son?
Uday Hussein
What year did Sadam Hussein come to power in Iraq?
What year did Sadam Hussein come to power in Iraq?
1979
What is the official language or Iraq?
What is the official language or Iraq?
Arabic
What is the major religion of Iraq?
What is the major religion of Iraq?
Islam
What is the capital of Iraq?
What is the capital of Iraq?
Baghdad
What was the primary cause of the US invasion of Iraq in 1991?
What was the primary cause of the US invasion of Iraq in 1991?
Iraq invaded Kuwait
What percentage of adult males in Iraq are unemployed?
What percentage of adult males in Iraq are unemployed?
50 percent
At the age of 20 Sadam Hussein joined which movement whose goal was to unite all Arab nations?
At the age of 20 Sadamn Hussein joined which movement whose goal was to unite all Arab nations?
Ba’ath Party
What country was involved in a border fighting with Iraq in Feb. 2008?
What are Postman’s fundamental arguments?
• Telegraph began to change the nature of the information environment
• There are fundamental epistemological differences between the word and the image.
“True, to read requires more intelligence than to watch, but a picture is worth 1000 words, and the pictures shown in the news wrote books of truth. A picture of a man being shot in the head has more truth on the horror of war than any book could.”
“Do pictures in the news write truth?
“What is the primary difference between the linguistic (verbal) and visual depiction of reality?
•Postman says that the sense of context created by the photograph
and headline is lllusory. What does he mean?
“It is true enough that the photograph provides a context for the sentence, and that sentence provides a context of sorts for the photograph, but if that is the being and end of your encounter, than the appearance of context provided by the conjunction of sentence is illusionary and so is the impression of meaning attached to it, and you may even believe for a day or two you have learned something.”
Neil Postman Amusing Ourselves to Death
Distinguishing Between Forms of Discourse: Visual vs. Verbal
• The Image
• Abstract
• Propositional
• Isolated From Context
• The Word or Concept
• Concrete
• Non-Propositional
• Function In Context
Distinguishing Between Forms of Discourse: Visual vs. Verbal
Can photographic messages be understood without language?
Can one argue about the truth or falsity of an image?
Can photographic messages be understood without language?
Can one argue about the truth or falsity of an image?
Can photographic messages be understood without language?
Can one argue about the truth or falsity of an image?
Can photographic messages be understood without language?
Can one argue about the truth or falsity of an image?
Can photographic messages be understood without language?
Can one argue about the truth or falsity of an image?
“What did Postman mean when he said television has become the background radiation of the social and intellectual universe?”
How Is Television Like Radiation?
• Television like radiation is ubiquitous
• Television like radiation is harmless in low doses and lethal in high doses
• Television like radiation exerts influence at low levels of awareness
Could it be that the pervasive nature of television influences what we defined as intelligence, out interests, and our habits?
• On average every household has a TV on almost 50 hours a week.
• 40% of households eat dinner with the set on.
Americans watch an average of 30 hours per week.
• The average American spends 1/5 of their life in front of the screen
What are Postman’s fundamental arguments?
• Telegraph began to change the nature of the information environment
• There are fundamental epistemological differences between the word and the image.
• The merging of the telegraphy and the photograph began the creation of a new metaphor of public discourse i.e. began to change the way we come to know and understand the world around us - seeing rather than reading became the basis for believing
The Natural Epistemology
“My grandmother, who lived in a Moravian village and still knew everything through her own experience: how bread is baked, how a house is built, how a pig is slaughtered and the meat smoked, what quilts are made of, what the priest and the schoolteacher think about the world; she met the whole village every day and knew how many murders were committed in the country over the last ten years; she had, so to speak, personal control over reality, and nobody could fool her by maintaining that Moravian agriculture was thriving when people at home had nothing to eat.”
“My Paris neighbor spends his time an an office, where he sits for eight hours facing an office colleague, then he sits in his car and drives home, turns on the TV, and when the announcer informs him that in the latest public opinion poll the majority of Frenchmen voted their country the safest in Europe (I recently read such a report), he is overjoyed and opens a bottle of champagne without ever learning that three thefts and two murders were committed on his street that very day.“
The Televisual Epistemology
Channeling Neil Postman
“Postman seems quick to state what is wrong with our culture due to the influence of television.
Does he offer any suggestions?
“I wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death to create awareness of the way in which mediums of communication have the power to resonate and to transform many different aspects of our culture. Many others have written similar books, Joshua Meyorwitz,, No Sense of Place, Mark Cripen Miller’s Boxed In: The Culture of TV, Steward Ewing’s All Consuming Images and Tood Gitlin’s Media Unlimied, In a sense we were trying to demythologize television. It is not our mission to tell people how to live their lives.”
Images proliferate, the net spreads, the volume rises. No one is in control. "Information is not knowledge; knowledge is not understanding. How can we create understanding in a world in which information and knowledge are out of control?"
Mark Taylor
``In the age of information overload the ultimate luxury is meaning and context.”
Louis Rossetto Wired Magazine 1993
“Postman says the most of the news of the day is irrelevant because it does not alter our lives. Sometimes, thought isn’t increasing one’s knowledge in and of itself worthwhile, even if it does not stir us to action.”
““
“Postman argues that the telegraph ushered in a new era of useless information, But is he suggesting that we would be better off without world news, since is does not effect us directly? Does that make it useless?”
““
“Why does Postman compare language and photography I don’t think they should be compared, they are so different.”
““
He is interested in epistemology.
Words and images are two of the primary ways we come to know and understand the world
around us
““
Voices From The Front
• “Why does Postman compare language and photography I don’t think they should be compared, they are so different.”
• Postman talks about how a camera limits perception, presenting only a fragment. Isn’t language also limited by the fact that it must be presented in a logical sequence?
• “I disagree with the idea that you can misunderstand language and can’t misunderstand picture.”