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Amusing Ourselves To Death Summary

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Media has gravitated toward the center of our culture over the years. Mr. Neil Postman writes in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, about his observation of the various forms of media throughout this nation’s history. Furthermore, Postman discusses has the media is shaping and influencing our culture. He writes about the idea that media has caused the world to lose focus of true information and inspiration. Postman’s thesis revolves around how the core values of media, such as news, have changed over the course of history. Media has lost the ability to educate, inspire, and guide people in the right direction. What should be educational and inspiring has changed into entertainment. Either the media lacks informing the viewers of useful and …show more content…

Like his example about the politician, a typical citizen in the typographical culture developed a judgement of their politicians by their ability to speak with eloquence. There was much more passion in the past concerning the actual policies and beliefs of public figures than there are today. In the typographic culture, there was an emphasis on educating citizens of politics through pamphlets, journals, and news articles. Postman stressed the significant influence that printed materials had on readers’ education and political advertisement. Unfortunately, the age of typographical culture has slowly transitioned into show business and entertainment. Media has had a significant impact on American culture over the course of history. It began when the general population gained knowledge of public figures through hearing speeches. When the printing press was picking up, it had a large influence on the ways politicians could voice themselves. As time went by, America slowly changed from having an educational based media to an entertainment based media. America was once a typographic culture where speeches influenced public opinion to an image-based culture. Even image-based culture began from television being informational to television being purely

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