AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATHCH. 7

Drew Shotts, Hunter Stafford, Quincy Gill, Nikole

Foley,

Sarah DeLeon, Alex Gamsen, and Mitch Stillwell

CHAPTER SUMMARY/OUTLINE

I. “Now…this”a. Usage in society

i. Used in radio and television as a way to switch from topic to topic creating no emotional connection

1. “There is no murder so brutal, no earthquake so devastating… that it cannot be erased from our minds by a newscaster saying “Now… this”” (Postman 99)

a. No seriousness in the newscast

CHAPTER SUMMARY/OUTLINE

II. Truth about newscastera. They are all entertainers. News = beauty + credibility

• Example: Christine Craft was fired for not having the correct appearance.

b. Credibility replaces reality• If you have the correct looks you can lie because you “look” credible,

if you don’t have the looks you are a lair.

III. News or Entertainment?a. Creating a musical theme bring in a more light hearted feel and entertains the reader as if there was no music and they would consider it to be serious

• Example: Flash Flood Warningsb. Emotion of newscasters

• Never stop to actually realize/understand the news they are giving• Example: Mass killings, and other disasters

CHAPTER SUMMARY/OUTLINE

c. Commercials: create a sense of rudeness.• Newscasters are talking about a serious issue but have to return

after a Burger King commercial. d. Example: Robert MacNeil says that News is best in short segments keeping the mind interactive and stimulated e. Disinformation: misleading information

• “News show entertains but does not inform” Americans believe they no everything about a situation because of the news but in all reality it gives them the wrong idea creating a wrong opinion.

f. News as defined how we receive information• USA Today has to be modeled in order to entertain (with visual

art) in order to sell• News as taught us how to react and what to react to

KEY TERMS

Term 1- Now...This

Postman suggests that the words "now…this"

are ominous and dangerous, as they have

added to English "a conjunction that does not

connect anything to anything but does the

opposite: separates everything from

everything" (99). He intends to explain how

these words serve as a metaphor for the

disconnection that plagues contemporary

American discourse.

KEY TERMS

Term 2- De contextualization

De contextualization:

to remove (a linguistic element, an action, etc.) from a cont

ext: decontextualized works ofart displayed in museums.

Postman goes so far as to suggest that this discourse of

Decontextualization is "surrealistic" and based on "a

theory of anti-communication" that has fed art forms like

Dadaism, nihilism, schizophrenia, or vaudeville. 

KEY TERMS

Term 3 DISINFORMATION

Disinformation: false information, as about a cou

ntry's military strength or plans, publicly announ

ced or planted

in the news media, especially of other countries.

Postman is attempting to stress the fact that

television is a medium, and along with being a

medium, it will translate the info that seems best

fit for the audience. 

KEY TERMS

Term 4 -Bight Sized news

  Within the chapter, it is explained that

everything in news is meant to be brief and

"bite-sized" to avoid any "complexity" (105). By

saying this, it helps to support Postman's

argument that as a viewer, we enjoy seeing

things that do not truly make us think, but to

simply entertain us. 

KEY TERMS

Term 5- "trivialization of public information"

Postman does not mean to suggest that the "trivialization

of public information" all happens on television, but rather

that television is the media-metaphor for a world in which

such trivialization is the norm (111). By saying this

Postman is by no means stating television is the only way

we obtain "trivialization" is through TV, but that TV is the

most implemented medium within our society.

VISUAL PRESENTATION PARAGRAPH

Chapter 7 in Amusing Ourselves To Death describes the problem news shows

on television propose to society. The problem is that American society now has an

abundance of arbitrary information, none of which can be applied to the lives of

individuals. This abundance of information makes up a passive society because we can

not do anything to help “little Billy” who was just shot by his mother. The video that

discusses Black Friday Gun sales is a news report done completely for entertainment

and to keep the public "informed", or just full of useless information. The newscaster is

at an indoor shooting range doing the cover story, and exciting bullet shots are in the

background to make the newscast seem more exciting. Nothing can be done or made

use of the new information about all of these Black Friday gun sales, however, at least

we are all so intrigued by the fascinating loud noises in the background. And so, we

continue to watch. 

OUTSIDE APPLICATION

In the Time magazine's article The Tick, Tick, Tick of the Times discusses the now widely used news

ticker at the bottoms of the news screen. Ponizwozk criticizes the use of the ticker, describing it as

"constant low level chatter". His argument of overstimulation by television goes hand in hand with Neil

Postman's, both can agree that television has become to much, especially news. Although Postman's

argument was written 30 years ago, in modern times, his argument is expanded even further throughout

society. With the invention of Facebook comes an even bigger threat than TV. Now every thought,

memory, and random information is portrayed as headlining news. Just as Postman's argument of

breaking news and news of the day, Facebook has accomplished what he was warning about, trivial facts

and misinformation being headlined as the absolute truth. As Ponizwozk stated "media [is the] era of

constant crisis mode and steady overstimulation" he could not be more true the idea of Facebook and

other sites just like it are exactly the same as the tickers at the bottom of the news screen, constant

updates of everything going on around the world, no matter how unimportant or irrelevant. Neil Postman

never lived to see the dawn of Facebook and the massive epistemology shift that took place, but

throughout his book he criticized the use of television as a credible source for information, and warned

about overstimulation by the media, and now Ponizwozk is contemplating the actual usefulness of the

simple device at the bottom of the screen saying it gives the viewers a false sense of being informed.

TEXTBOOK P. 766-776

I. Mass culture follows a path declining steadily toward lowest-common-

denominator standards

A. The masses want dumb

B. Video games and violent television dramas= nutritional

C. Simple pleasures are what people want

1. Sleeper curve

2. People should not be dumbing down from entertainment

3. People try and keep up with entertainment

TEXTBOOK P. 766-776

II. Kids and grown-ups can each learn from their increasingly

shared obsessions

A. People focus more and more on entertainment

B. Even adults want to go home to their Xbox

C. Adults are starting to learn from children about

technology

1. Don’t force kids to ingest the culture

2. Parents should take the new culture as an

opportunity

3. Kids are forced to think like adults

TEXTBOOK P. 766-776

III. Entertainment industries are not increasing the cognitive complexity of their

products for charitable reasons.

A. There is money to be made by making the culture “smarter”

B. programs have to be made so they are able to be watched twice to have

value

C. Although there is a website that helps more complicated shows prosper

1. Games probe complex environments and make people think on

their feet

2. The mind likes to be challenged

3. Gamers expect challenges to be present everywhere now