... Amusing Ourselves to Death Questions and Answers. They appeal to the psychological needs of the viewer because they provide "instant therapy" (130). examples include Athens being a metaphor of intellectual excellence (18); Hamlet being a metaphor "brooding indecisiveness" (18); Alice from Alice in Wonderland as "a metaphor of a search for order in a world of semantic nonsense" (18). The . Bibliography: p. Includes index. He states that "at no point do I care to claim that changes in media bring about changes in the structures of people's minds or changes their cognitive capacities" (27). Postman claims that "entertainment is the supra-ideology of all discourse on television" (87). To speak without the use of rhetoric meant to speak "without proper emphasis or appropriate passion" (23) and could be seen as random and without direction. As such, the complexities of any politician's personality and opinions can never be fully communicated on television without compromising his candidacy, and so the electorate will never have a truly rational understanding of who or what they are voting for. Amusing Ourselves to Death, Chapter 1, end of chapter. His lesson is that when print media dominated culture, public discussion was, for the most part, orderly and rational because it followed the format of written communication. Postman states that "each medium, like language itself, makes possible a unique mode of discourse by providing a new orientation for thought, for expression, for sensibility" (10). 31. Postman says that this can undermine political discourse because corporate "does everything possible to encourage us to watch continuously"(141) and "in America, we are never denied the opportunity to amuse ourselves"(141). Another point Postman claims in chapter 7 is that Americans are confused on what it means to be well informed. This happened because the news had a context – the listener could relate it to his or her life and community. Instead, information was delivered as typically sensational, and with the understanding that one headline would soon be displaced by another. This question is best answered in GradeSaver's summary and analysis for Chapter One of Postman's book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. The third example is about the trial of Socrates and how he failed to have rhetoric-filled speech prepared. What are the main points he makes in chapter 7: "Now...This". It is "misleading information"(107) which also includes "—misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information"(107). that something can have a greater effect than originally expected, dependent upon its context. Postman describes our culture as a this because of our constant need to be entertained by new knowledge, only for that information to vanish once it becomes "old". Religion, he argues, requires a community present in a space that can be consecrated to its spiritual purpose. In the context of Amusing Ourselves to Death, he believes that media "has the power to become implicated in our concepts of piety, or goodness, or beauty"(18). GradeSaver, 24 March 2013 Web. As relates to his thesis, a civilization's media-metaphor shapes its discourse by defining the way that civilization understands truth. i am sure all of you will begin studying by then. What the telegraph introduced, by destroying the idea that geographical distance limited communication, was the idea of decontexualized news. No longer did man rely on nature and seasons, but instead "seconds and minutes" (Postman 11). For his third point, he claims that the content created by television affects communication, but not everything. However, its thesis can easily be applied to – if not elevated by – the age of the Internet. Chapter Summary for Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, part 2 chapter 10 summary. In this example, he reflected upon the 1983 discussion following the movie, "The Day After". As such, the value of silence and emptiness has declined in the face of the over-stimulation suggested by the media-metaphor of the Internet. He claimed that this would "reveal people in the act of thinking"(90), which would be seen as "boring on television"(90). What is the point that he makes concerning the invention of clocks? Not affiliated with Harvard College. 17. Postman presents the idea that every civilization’s “conversation” is hindered by the jaundice of the media it utilizes. Postman's conception is that television, as a media-metaphor, has shaped us to believe all discourse worth paying attention to should be presented as entertainment. Instead, he seems to think that civilization is somewhat powerless before its media-metaphor, especially when that civilization does not understand the way that media works to shape our discourse. In what ways is Amusing Ourselves to Death still relevant to an age less defined by television than by the Internet? Our only hope, he suggests, is that we recognize the way it is working upon us, and attempt to exert control over it. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Why does he call this chapter "The Peek-a-Boo World"? What lessons does he want us to see here? Students must answer 6 questions for each . Postman's discussion of advertising in "Reach Out and Elect Someone" is perhaps the closest he comes to suggesting the profit some entities might gain from encouraging such a discourse of distractions to persevere. Hence, we are amusing ourselves to death. By posing school-worthy lessons in an entertainment context, children are being trained to respond to learning only when it is presented as entertainment. Chapter 2 – Media as Epistemology. No matter how grave, serious, or potentially relevant a story is, the discourse of news tells us that it should not be belabored, which it does by transitioning immediately to something unrelated. study guide will be posted sunday by noon. On page 61, he concludes a paragraph by saying "this is the difference between thinking in a word-centered culture and thinking in an image-centered culture". The result is we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death” (3–4). He answers his question by saying that it is there "to create a mood and provide a leitmotif for the entertainment"(102). A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. What kinds of proper behaviors and public decorum can be observed at school that cannot be observed from watching the television? Chapter Summary for Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, part 2 chapter 8 summary. By having these messages brought to them, people might be encouraged to investigate political questions or visit a local church, when they might otherwise not have been. first example, he details the culture of a West African tribe that has no system of writing, instead using its "rich oral tradition" (18) to keep law. People thereby grew accustomed to information as something soon to be forgotten in favor of something else. Apply it to both television and the Internet. 21. But in today's image-centered culture, a public figure is remembered by their physical appearance and rarely by their work alone. The increasing ubiquity of television in America is at the center of this book’s set of concerns. that have fewer than 6. questions. Courtesy of neilpostman.org. Find a summary of this and each chapter of Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business! Therefore, television is a curriculum on the contemporary discourse – which says that all worth saying should be said as entertainment – rather than on any particular subject. The thesis of chapter 6 is that all information presented on a television is done so to be entertaining. Chapter Summary for Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, part 2 chapter 6 summary. However, with the telegraph, a conversation across our huge continent must necessarily have been decontexualized. "is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right" (Postman xx). Commercials push to provide an instant solution to a consumer's problem and has embedded the thought within us that all problems can be solved fast. As Andrew Postman notes in his introduction to the 20th anniversary edition of his father's book, there are some younger students who criticize the book as relevant only to an older generation. Postman states that "we ought also to look to Huxley, not Orwell, to understand the threat that television and other forms of imagery pose to the foundation of liberal democracy—namely, to freedom of information"(138). Therefore, the religious experience cannot be truly communicated through television, and so the larger audience is not getting a real spiritual experience. What he means by this is that the influx of information is creating a sea of irrelevant information, making it difficult for Americans to tell what's true. 14. Amusing Ourselves to Death”, I believe is the ideal title for not only Neil Postman’s book but his over all premise of technology as a whole.In my essay about Postman’s 1992 article in Tecnos, I am going to take the approach of arguing on the side that goes in opposition to his beliefs. Amusing Ourselves to Death Discussion Questions Students must answer 6 questions for each chapter; students must answer all of the questions for the chapters that have fewer than 6 questions. It is an easy jump to claim that in the Age of the Internet, the concept of "Now…this" not only remains relevant, but in fact seems almost prophetic on Postman's part. basically 'the ways we define and regulate our ideas of truth"(18). How are the "tyranny of the corporate state" and the "Huxleyan tyranny" combined to undermine critical political discourse? Audiences would gather to hear an oral discussion that could be described as literary in terms of content and format. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. The Medium Is the Metaphor. The point Postman is trying to create is that a technology is "merely a machine"(84). Other works by Neil Postman: Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk (1976) The End of Education (1995) Table of Contents: Foreword. For his second point, he claims that the theories presented within this book do not yet pertain to everyone. ..Because it is "requiring its form to be used in political campaigns"(129) and "has embedded in it[self] certain assumptions about the nature of communication that run counter to those of other media, especially the printed word" (130). The relevance of any information to someone's life barely mattered, because even if it was relevant, it was soon replaced, leaving no time or inclination towards thought or consideration. This sense of jumping from one experience to the next, without truly living in the ramifications of any experience, is an indication of the discourse Postman fears we have fallen into. This idea of a curriculum could be used to generally understand Postman's thesis, which suggests television has trained us to respond to the world in a certain way; it gives us lots of decontextualized information, but what we retain most of all are the rules of the discourse that television demands. He goes on to say that disinformation "creates the illusion of knowing something but which in fact leads one away from knowing" (107). Who or what is to be blamed for the predominance of television, and the discourse it inspires? He asks "what has music to do with the news? This is naturally a question of opinion. Referring to the way a newscaster typically transitions from one piece of news to another, the phrase implies a disconnection between stories or information, and inspires a lack of contemplation or consideration of any one detail. An important point that Postman tries to get across is that "television is altering the meaning of "being informed" by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation"(107). Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. Television commercials, and television itself, are a threat because those who run it "do not limit our access to information but in fact widen it"(141). Television, on the other hand, is an inherently secular space in which a viewer can change the channel and will soon be subjected to commercials even if she doesn't. Secondly, it made appearance more relevant in our culture. Citizens were able to comprehend this form of public speaking because they were used to the written format, the most popular medium of the day. 28. people were no longer limited to local ideas and knowledge and had the opportunity to explore ideas written by someone halfway across the country. chapter 11. How does this help him clarify his thesis? Students must create 6 questions that are related to the assumptions and to the reading in chapter 11 The Huxleyan Warning. To begin his exploration of how print as a media-metaphor influenced the discourse of its time, Postman considers the famed Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas publicly debated one another when competing for the Illinois state senate seat. What are the lessons de draws by explaining "three cases of truth telling"? Cedars, S.R.. McKeever, Christine ed. Foreward Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Themes All Themes Form and Content Typography vs. Because it's difficult to write something and not share an idea, opinion, or fact. Chapter 1: In Chapter 1 of the novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman, the concept of the “media metaphor” is introduced. Amusing Ourselves to Death Discussion Questions. Now they are known by their appearance. Material delivered by television will be seen as entertainment, regardless of its subject matter. And it would not be difficult in a world of viral YouTube videos, downloadable media, and ever-expanding Internet punditry to find parallels to Postman's basic theory that our discourse is one based around entertainment. He suggests that our "media-metaphors classify the world for us, sequence it, frame it, enlarge it, reduce it, color it, argue a case for the what the world is like" (10). The television as a medium allows sound and picture to be used simultaneously. In the chapter on education, Postman suggests that educational programs are less useful in teaching children to love learning than they are in teaching children to love television. the invention of the clock led to the idea of living "moment to moment" (11), living life in "mathematically measurable sequences" (11). Before discussing how the discussion went, he explained how it was formatted. What point is he trying to illustrate when he talks about the discussion following the controversial movie, The Day After? Explain the title Amusing Ourselves to Death. "Amusing Ourselves to Death Essay Questions". It's not the fact that only entertaining material is being broadcasted, but that all material will be presented as such. This philosophy applies to television in general, which is required to deliver its story or message in concrete 30 minute or one-hour chunks of time, and which is in fact meant to create a self-sustaining experience between each set of commercials. As such, our discourse both on and off the screen has turned into different shades of entertainment, no matter how important that discourse is. 16. The Question and Answer section for Amusing Ourselves to Death is a great However, one could argue that the increased audience does justify the compromises by suggesting that people are not typically inclined to pursue intellectual or spiritual outlets on their own. Amusing Ourselves to Death Summary. Image The History of Public Discourse and Media News and Entertainment Progress, Prediction, and the Unforeseen Future Amusing Ourselves to Death study guide contains a biography of Neil Postman, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. In the context of Amusing Ourselves to Death, he believes that media "has the power to become implicated in our concepts of piety, or goodness, or beauty"(18). And the forms of communication and the content? Postman felt confident with the board of thinkers that would participate in the discussion. Postman claims that an idea, claim, or fact is the most likely outcome of written content and argues that "it is very hard to say nothing when employing a written English sentence" (50). Generations of Americans have grown up with TV's, so we have become familiar with them. In his view, our public discourse is steadily devolving, and under the inherent biases of television, this will only continue. Questions: Chapters 1-5 How do "Smoke Signals" fit into this discussion? Through commercials, information is delivered in abundance. Example: Smoke signals. 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