Analysis of the the Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business - Book Report/Review Example

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Dis in the Age of Show Business: A Book Report Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business was originally published in 1985 and was written by Neil Postman. Revived in 2006 by his son Andrew Postman, the book still carries weight for its social commentary on media and communications. The primary media in the 1980s was the television that provided an average of about 4 ? hours of time spent watching for Americans. His son reports that this average still holds true, meaning that by the time someone reaches the age of 65, they have spent twelve years watching television. Television is an important aspect of communication, creating imagery oriented transmissions that have finite meanings in which the public can become informed. This limit has created a world that runs on the ‘branding’ of an issue rather than a meaningful understanding that allows for informed opinions to be made. As a medium for communications, the television is unique because it gives conversation through images. Imagery is the primary form of communication that is created, making what is seen by the viewer the foremost convincing agent of the transmission. Postman gives the example of President William Howard Taft who carried three hundred pounds of weight. If he were to attempt a run at the Presidency in the age of television, the entire discourse in seeing him speak would surround the way he looked, getting in the way of what he would say. News media as it is translated for the visual medium of television becomes commercialized, primarily relevant to its visual translation. The context of an event has a far greater impact than the content as the viewer is impacted by its imagery at a far greater level than by the words that are used to describe what is seen. According to how Postman frames the event of daily news via television suggests, then that it is now a commercialized event. News is advertised, framed by the way in which editors put the visual content together to create the highest entertainment value. The news of the day is promoted, rather than simply informative, making it a commodity for its entertainment value. However, televised news is given in fragments, conveyed in such a way that it can provide a source of titillation, but without any meaningful exchange between the broadcast and the viewer. The viewer cannot truly act upon the information, thus is left impotent in the wake of its impact upon his or her life. The length of a news item has been reduced until it fits within an approximate paragraph of information, limiting the truth to its barest bones and then limiting the way in which the viewer can perceive the information. The few minutes of broadcast imagery and paragraph of auditory information means that the viewer must assess and process information very quickly, most aspects of life reduced to merely sound bites of relatable information. The result of how both news and entertainment affect the viewer has resulted in a life that is primarily about its entertainment value. Postman discusses that the entertainment value of an event is of primary concern to the choices made by both broadcasters and viewers. A modern example can be made between the nature of current war coverage in comparison to that of the Vietnam Conflict. The Vietnam Conflict was placed at the center of news coverage throughout its duration. The American public was inundated with powerful imagery that sent them into action against what some perceived as an injustice in the world. The news outlets created an advertisement of the war, framed to have the highest emotional impact on the viewers through incendiary imagery. However, the current conflict that has been raging for ten years is barely a footnote in the daily news, the events occurring in Iraq held separate from the daily visual discourse of the average American. The differences between reading news and reading a book and watching television is defined, primarily by the depth of the available content. Print media provides a space in which multiple aspects of an event can not only be related, but discussed in terms of the overall impact that it has on life. As an example, the concept that emerged in the 1980s about getting ‘tough on crime’ signaled a great many changes in the public point of view on the way in which justice should be administered, but because of the sound bite type of promotion that the political agenda received, it would be surprising to find a great majority of the public having an understanding of all of the implications of those policies. It is not to say that all of the American public lives simply under the umbrella of ignorance that is constructed through slogan style information, but there are a great many public opinions that have been formed through the ‘branding’ of a concept through a slogan. In reading a book, for instance, over watching something through the television medium, a depth of meaning can be experienced that is not available in the content of a televised program. Postman discusses the event of reading over the event of watching television in terms of context, the medium of print having the capacity to relate a deeper meaning than can be conveyed though the imagery oriented medium of television. However, he does observe that seeking the shorter version, the condensed point of view that could quickly inform, is not a new concept brought on by the television. Postman states that “Benjamin Franklin observed that Americans were so busy reading newspapers and pamphlets that they scarcely had time for books” (29). The quickly transmitted information has always been a goal. However, what is lost by fully relying on the television is an understanding of issues that affect daily life. The way in which an issue is advertised becomes public opinion, limited by the type of information and the perspective that is given by the television medium, without allowing for multiple contexts to enrich the information so that it opinions are fully informed. The political sphere has had the highest impact from the shift from written communications to image communications as primary locale for informative discourse. As shown in the example of President Taft, how one appears is as important, if not more important, than what one has to say about a topic. The ways in which the needs of the public are addressed are now shortened to sound bites and slogans, large events now receiving theme music in order to frame the emotions of an event. Military conflicts have poetic names that are intended to evoke emotional responses that are independent of the event. The names ‘Desert Storm’ and ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ sound more like film titles than major world events, but the television has changed the way in which world events are presented. Politics is now framed by show business, an entertainment for the masses in which the impact of events and policies on real life are advertised in order to promote public opinion, rather than to provide a framework of understanding in which true opinion can be formed. The public is shown what is necessary in order to create belief, with little opportunity for opposing ideas to have an affect. Television has created a medium in which the events of the world are framed by their entertainment value and related through imagery discourse. Television is unique for its imagery communication, creating a powerful medium for transmitting ideas. However, as all of life is now translated into entertainment, a truly meaningful discourse on public events has become rare. Public policy, opinion, and the course of culture is now dictated in sound bites and advertised concepts that are adopted more for their emotional connection to the viewer than through intellectual discovery. Works Cited Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2005. Print. Read More