If you can explain the components of that sentence (TV, medium, epistemological bias, critical thought) and you can explain what the sentence means as a whole, then you're well on your way to acing Friday's Postman quiz. If you cannot, then you know some things you should study.
(Note: that's my sentence summarizing Postman, not a quote from the book.)
Some other key terms: graphic revolution; electronic revolution; the typographic mind; Huxleyan Warning. If you have questions or thoughts about these terms, post them in the comment field below. Here are a couple of other things that you might find interesting:
A somewhat-recent article from the Boston Globe, concerning how imagination and creativity are affected by allowing the mind to "wander," concludes that children are less capable of imagination and creative thought than they once were. The cause of this, in part, is a drastically reduced threshold for boredom. It's not that kids used to like being bored, but that "empty time" did not previously cause the uncomfortable stimulation-withdrawal that we now call "boredom." Here's a paragraph:
After monitoring the daily schedule of the children for several months, [researcher] Belton came to the conclusion that their lack of imagination was, at least in part, caused by the absence of "empty time," or periods without any activity or sensory stimulation. She noticed that as soon as these children got even a little bit bored, they simply turned on the television: the moving images kept their minds occupied. "It was a very automatic reaction," she says. "Television was what they did when they didn't know what else to do."And how ironic of me to link to this video for your entertainment:
Television, as a medium, has an epistemological bias against critical thought.
ReplyDeleteThis sentence summarizes much of Neil Postman's thoughts about Media in his book "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Busines". This sentence can be broken down into three components.
1. Television, as a medium-- This refers not to the physical technology of the television set, but to the set of effects given by it. As Prof. Sewall said, "technology is to a medium what the brain is to the mind." When Postman refers to the television in his book, he more refers to all the things that the physical object called the TV does. This is his definition of a medium
2.Epistemological bias--Here, Postman refers to his idea that all media, whether speech, writing, print, or television, all define truth in a different way. Speech demands that truth be easily remembered, so what is true usually takes the form of poetic sayings and proverbs, which are easily remembered. Print demands that truth be rational, logical, and able to be reviewed by others. TV, however, biases all truth as insincere, disconnected, yet very entertaining nonsense.
3. Critical thought--This refers to one's ability to look at an argument and ask oneself "Is this true?" in the age of typography, where print was the foremost medium, this question could very well be asked of anything. One could debate with the political treatises of Locke, Paine, and Jefferson. One could follow their thought and either agree or disagree. This is contrasted with media today, which present chunks of information without any context or relevance to the user
If taken as a whole, this sentence means that television, in the sense of everything on television, news, sports, politics, cartoons, etc., packages truth as separate blurbs of irrelevant information that is devoid of any meaningful discourse. One cannot watch a television commercial and ask "Is this true?" Such a question is nonsensical, since nothing requiring such an answer is ever asked. Because of this packaging of truth as contextless, irrelevant, undebatable axioms, television is diminishing the ability of people to think logically about an entire truth and ask themselves "Is this true?"
If Prof. Sewall is out there, could you please comment and tell me how I am doing? Thank you
correction to Television, as a Medium,
ReplyDeleteIn my last post, I did not fully explain what the medium of television, according to Postman, is. The Medium of Television is a term for what comes through the physical object. It is analogous to the mind being what is the product of the brain or a song being the product of an instrument. It is not the physical technology, but what comes through the technology that defines the medium.
To that kid ^ Thanks for giving me the answers. I really didn't want to read the book.
ReplyDeleteto that kid ^ you're probably gonna fail the test cause you didnt read the book. you are a prime Postman example.
ReplyDeleteSexy and smart enough to use common sense and spark notes on a test and pass?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I can't justify using the little time I have on my intro filler classes.
Yikes.
ReplyDeletetoo much time on Facespace??
ReplyDeleteWhat does sexy have to do with smart? Oh! Never mind you didn't read the book, you know the part where is says basically that community these days is more concerned with the attractiveness of people on TV rather than what they are presenting....
ReplyDeleteSorry for not commenting sooner. (laptop failures)
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 1: Excellent summation of Postman's points.
@Anonymous 2: Thanks for your honesty and insight. I hadn't known that Spark Notes had a sexiness threshold for their customers.
ahahahahahaha.
ReplyDelete