Neil Postman Knowledge

The media’s job is to entertain, inform, and educate society on what is going on around the world. The media entertains society by reporting stories that amuse people. The educational function of the media is about allowing society to know their legal rights. The informational aspect of the media does not need to be explained; it is self-explanatory. Within the last three decades, the media’s role has changed dramatically. The media went from using telegraphs, post offices, newspapers, magazines, radio, and television to using cell phones and tablets. In the modern era, which is also sometimes referred to as the information age, global networking and global communication have shaped modern societies. The majority of

Jenkins talks about how the consumption of media products is a collective process, in other words, the collective intelligence is seen as an alternative source of media power. He describes how within popular culture, the collective meaning making is shaping and changing the ways religion, education, laws, politics, advertising and how the military operate (4). Jenkins discusses a process called “convergence of modes”, he explains that media and communication are becoming interconnected like the telephone and television.

Huxley’s Brave New World could be considered almost prophetic by many people today. It is alarmingly obvious how modern society is eerily similar to Huxley’s novel with the constant demand for instant gratification encouraging laziness, greed, and entitlement. Neil Postman, a contemporary social critic, seems to have noticed this similarity, as he has made bold, valid statements regarding the text and its relevance to our world today. This response is strongly in support of those statements and will prove both their accuracy in clarifying Huxley’s intentions and how Postman’s assertions compare to society today.

When comprising an argument, the use of rhetorical strategies is essential to planning out how one presents both the chosen argument and the evidence for their position. To understand these strategies and how they are used allows for a deeper understanding of the argument and invokes critical thinking. For instance, in Journalist Joanmarie Kalter’s piece “Exposing Media Myths: TV doesn’t affect you as much as you think”. The author attempts to convince the reader that the notion, that TV is the number one source of information used today and therefore holds immense sway over the general public, is false. And because of how the rhetorical strategies are used in the article. She manages to get the reader to second guess the notion that TV holds

Postman says that, as a result, "all public understanding of these subjects is shaped by the biases of television" (78) and that in the absence of rational discourse, cultural decay is sure to follow.

All throughout history we have used metaphors to describe people, places, events and emotions; so it is perfectly fitting to describe the mediums with which we project our ideas as a metaphor as well. This is Neil Postman 's basis for his book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Television and other media outlets have conditioned us to accept entertainment in every aspect of life; but most of all it masks the state of public affairs and politics. Through his book, Postman begs that we recognize the ways in which media shapes our lives and how we can use them to serve us instead of hurt us. Broken into two parts, Amusing Ourselves to Death focuses on a historical analysis of media, then discusses the television media-metaphor in more detail. Postman examines how media has infected every aspect of public discourse by prizing entertainment as the standard of truth.

Part one is concerned mostly with background and historical analysis. In Chapter one, "The Medium is the Metaphor," Postman introduces the concept of the media-metaphor. He suggests that an oral culture will speak of the world differently than one that has printed language. It is all an introduction for his basic examination, which aims to show how the television age is undergoing a rapid transformation in the wake of the relatively new media of television. In Chapter two, "Media as Epistemology," Postman examines how any civilization's media will determine the way in which it defines truth.

The only way humans can interact with each other is by communicating. Communicating is getting a message across to someone else, however Neil Postman who wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death points out that there are many different ways this can be done. How content is presented regulates how it comes across and therefore how we react to it. There are many different ways messages can be sent, it could be through speech, gestures, writing, TV, or the newspaper. However, all these forms of communication that people utilize currently haven’t always existed. What our culture is like largely depends on what kind of form communication takes regulating how our brains think about oncoming details. The way the message is sent helps the reader to interpret

Marshall McLuhen published Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man in 1964. This writing served as the basis of Carr's ideas. Technology, as it is today, is changing our brains. The Shallows explores the debate over the powers and perils of modern technology.

Clive Thompson and Neil Postman are authors who discuss specific mediums through writing. Postman writes about the television and newspaper and Thompson writes about the internet age. Both of these authors use the same approach on their respected mediums. In comparison they both have the same piece of writing. Comparing side by side, it reveals a bigger idea that the communication medium always outweigh the cons.

Opening the book, Postman explains how he will fulfill showing that a “great media-metaphor shift has taken place in America, with the result that content of much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense” (pg. 16). There are two major points First: under the printing press, discourse In America was different from what it is now—generally coherent, serious, rational. Second: under the governance of television, it has become withered. This made me think about how much media affects us on a daily basis.

This is evident in the changes made regarding rights for defendants, policies and protocols for avoiding bias in judgment, and presumption of guilt. Now, defendants have the right to present their side of the case and be adequately represented, judges and juries must be neutral parties, and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. The senseless loss of twenty-five lives has clearly had a major impact on the modern American justice system. To prevent these baseless atrocities from ever occurring again, it was necessary to revise the law and ensure true

Throughout the span of the past few weeks I have traversed the globe, visiting several countries and regions, only to realize that although new methods develop, language as a way of expressing ones self has remained the most effective. Despite this fact, language still has its pitfalls. Neil Postman, in his essay “Defending Against the Indefensible,'; outlines seven concepts that can be used to aid a student in better understanding the language as a means of communication. He describes how modern teaching methods leave a student vulnerable to the “prejudices of their elders';, further stating that a good teacher must always be skeptical. He urges teachers of all subjects to break free from traditional teachings as

Postman (1987) claims that television is an evil that destroys the purpose and complexities of public discourse. He argues that important issues are oversimplified and drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Chaffee and Metzger (2001) confirm this assumption by remarking the evolution of print and radio into television and television into new media. Establishing the similarities between Postman’s chief complaints about the television medium and the new media then rearing its ugly head. Chaffee and Metzger indicate the shift in the denotations of mass, media, and communication. With technological advancements, it is impossible to ignore the new media and its impact on modern culture.

Both traditional and new media provide information, news and messages to inform us happenings around the world (UK Essays, 2013). Regardless of if it is the newspaper, magazine or Facebook, e-magazine, all types of media are able to relay information and entertainment.