"Yes, Americans watch more TV, but is this really why they bowl together less? Yes, news media is reducing everything to five-second sound bites, but is this why we have the political gridlock?"
Media scholar, NYU professor Neil Postman examined the cultural impact of television in his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death.
America was the most literate nation in the world in the 17th century. Between 1640 and 1700, the literacy rate for men in Massachusetts and Connecticut was somewhere between 89 percent and 95 percent, quite probably the highest concentration of literate males to be found anywhere in the world at that time [1]. The male literacy rate in England did not exceed 40 percent.
For 250 years, books, town hall meetings, leaflets, and then newspapers, were how Americans exchanged civic ideas and conducted public discourse. When Lincoln debated Douglas in 1858, they took turns speaking for one hour each, then were each allowed an hour and a half to reply. Newspapers reported every point in detail.
From the 1950's onwards, the American news business moved from the typographical domain of newspapers, to the ephemeral world of television, with profound consequences. Marshal McLuhan cut to the chase with his aphorism, "the medium is the message". What he meant is that the UI and information dynamics of each media type determine what sorts of conversations and discourse can be communicated, and what is excluded.
Typographical media encouraged history, background, and timeless reflection of countervailing arguments and analyses.
Television changed that by chopping news into 30 second pieces, with no background understanding required, infrequent depth, and a change of topic after every 3 stories for a message from our sponsor, after which you'd return to something completely different.
News has become entertainment. Entertainment has become trivia and indulgences.
Because TV news omits historical background, precludes detailed argument, and butchers context, it changes the nature of public discourse, which determines the public officials we elect, the policies they enact, and the corporate consequences of the flow of money from consumer advertising, which is what television (and now online "news") exists to serve.
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[1] Hart, James D. The Popular Book: A History of America's Literary Taste. New York: Oxford University Press, 1950.
"Yes, Americans watch more TV, but is this really why they bowl together less? Yes, news media is reducing everything to five-second sound bites, but is this why we have the political gridlock?"
Media scholar, NYU professor Neil Postman examined the cultural impact of television in his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death.
America was the most literate nation in the world in the 17th century. Between 1640 and 1700, the literacy rate for men in Massachusetts and Connecticut was somewhere between 89 percent and 95 percent, quite probably the highest concentration of literate males to be found anywhere in the world at that time [1]. The male literacy rate in England did not exceed 40 percent.
For 250 years, books, town hall meetings, leaflets, and then newspapers, were how Americans exchanged civic ideas and conducted public discourse. When Lincoln debated Douglas in 1858, they took turns speaking for one hour each, then were each allowed an hour and a half to reply. Newspapers reported every point in detail.
From the 1950's onwards, the American news business moved from the typographical domain of newspapers, to the ephemeral world of television, with profound consequences. Marshal McLuhan cut to the chase with his aphorism, "the medium is the message". What he meant is that the UI and information dynamics of each media type determine what sorts of conversations and discourse can be communicated, and what is excluded.
Typographical media encouraged history, background, and timeless reflection of countervailing arguments and analyses.
Television changed that by chopping news into 30 second pieces, with no background understanding required, infrequent depth, and a change of topic after every 3 stories for a message from our sponsor, after which you'd return to something completely different.
News has become entertainment. Entertainment has become trivia and indulgences.
Because TV news omits historical background, precludes detailed argument, and butchers context, it changes the nature of public discourse, which determines the public officials we elect, the policies they enact, and the corporate consequences of the flow of money from consumer advertising, which is what television (and now online "news") exists to serve.
- - -
[1] Hart, James D. The Popular Book: A History of America's Literary Taste. New York: Oxford University Press, 1950.