Neil Postman,(1931-2004), Former ChairCulture and Communications Department

New York University

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Chapter 2Media as Epistemology

What are Postman’s fundamental arguments ?

• Media function as epistemology

What are Postman’s fundamental arguments ?

• Every medium of communication has "resonance.”

What Is Resonance?

“It is stated that a phrase, statement, character, person, idea of concept can have a certain resonance when it moves beyond its original meaning or purpose and moves into new and unexpected contexts.”

the power of an idea, book or phrase, or even a country, to develop itself until it becomes

emblematic for a variety of experiences

What Does It Mean To Say…”

“…through resonance a particular statement in a particular context acquires a universal significance.”

One slang sense is “controlled, cautious or discreet”, which was

fashionable in the early 1950s

• “stay cool”

• “keeping a cool head.”

Teen Culture – 1961 Linked with Identityand Social Power

"We shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.“ Governor Winthrop, a founder of the Massachusetts colony,

• "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

The torch is a symbol of enlightenment.  The Statue of Liberty'storch lights the way to freedom showing us the path to Liberty.  Even the Statue's official name represents

her most important symbol "Liberty Enlightening the World"

“I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don‘ know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.”

Ronald Reagan

Farewell Address to the Nation

1989.

“Let us keep them before us now – like a torch, like a beacon – even as we mourn and grieve.

For if we are steadfast we know that, by the grace of God, no darkness, no evil can ever extinguish that beacon of hope.”

Experiment in ReligiousFreedom

LibertyFreedom

AmericanExperience

Hope

"Disneyland is youth land. Here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals and the dreams and the hard facts that have created America with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”

July 17, 1955

Steamboat WillieSmall Animation

Studio

ThemeParks

Family

AmericanExperience

Hope

ReligionNews

Education Politics

ReligionNews

Education Politics

What are Postman’s fundamental arguments ?

•Every medium of communication has "resonance.”

• A culture's beliefs (e.g. their "truth") is influenced by the available means of expression or

communication.

What Does It Mean To Say…”

“…definitions of truth are derived , at least in part, from the character of the media of communication through which information is conveyed.”

“the concepts of truth is intimately linked to the biases of forms of expression.”

I think this epistemological axiom is interesting – “Seeing is believing.” Postman is right, we do always say this phrase or believe in it, yet never do we say “saying is believing,” “reading is believing,” etc. I think this was a really good way for Postman to describe the shift in our culture from typography to television.” Amber Krosel fourOne7 Class of 06

Age of Speech

How were definitions of the truth influenced by the dominant medium of communication?

Listening is Believing

Age of Print

How were definitions of the truth influenced by the dominant medium of communication?

Reading is Believing

Age of Television

How were definitions of the truth influenced by the dominant medium of communication?

Watching or Seeing is Believing

From Postman’s vantage point is listening, reading, and seeing the

same epistemologically?

Why might an oral culture be less inclined to devalue the aged like our

culture does?

The Digital Age

How might our definitions of truth be influenced by the dominant medium of communication?

Is seeing believing with the advent of digital imaging?

In the age of electronic text is reading always believing?

Voices From The Front

“It was a harmless game to us…but think about it…that messages can be changed and than resent and redistributed..”

David Hammond

fourOne7

Class of 1994

In the O.J. Simpson trial in 1994 did the medium for communicating evidence

influence the jury’s perception of the truth?

In the O.J. Simpson trial did the medium for communicating evidence influence person’s

perception of the truth?

• Oral Discourse (the spoken word)

• The Visual Image (Televisual Evidence)

• DNA (Technical/Scientific Evidence)

In the O.J. Simpson trial did the medium for communicating evidence influence person’s

perception of the truth?

• The Visual Image (Visual &Televisual Evidence)

Inside OJ's bedroom a pair of dark colored bloodspotted socks lay on the rug. Luggage straps lay across OJ's bed.

In the O.J. Simpson trial did the medium for communicating evidence influence person’s

perception of the truth?

• The Visual Image (Televisual Evidence)

• DNA (Technical/Scientific Evidence)

Blood evidence was found in Simpson's white Bronco

Blood found on Bronco Driver Door Interior #23

• Blood found on Bronco instrument panel #24*

• Blood found on Bronco instrument panel #25*

• Blood found on the steering wheel #29Match --

Match – Simpson

• Match -- Simpson

• Match -- Simpson

• Simpson, and Brown (a mixture)

•

Blood evidence was found in Simpson's white Bronco

• Blood found on the center console #30

• Blood found on the center console #31

• Blood found on driver's side wall #34

• Match -- Simpson

• Simpson and Goldman (a mixture

• Match -- Simpson

In the O.J. Simpson trial did the medium for communicating evidence influence person’s

perception of the truth?

• The Oral ArgumentOral Discourse (the spoken word)

What are Postman’s fundamental arguments ?

•Every medium of communication has "resonance.”•Mediums of communication influence what "resonates" within a culture.

• A culture's beliefs (e.g. their "truth") is influenced by the available means of expression or communication.

A new medium of communication changes the form or structure of public discourse. When the form or structure of public discourse is altered the content is altered.

VISUAL

DRAMATIC(of in the form of narrative)

NOVEL

EMOTIONAL

SIMPLE

IMMEDIACY

Channeling Neil Postman

Voices from the Front

• “I do not like this comparison, has my mind been corrupted because I choose to watch the news rather than read the newspaper. I don’t think so, but I’m sure Neil Postman does.”

“I disagree with Postman when he talks about how (referring to television) when a river gets polluted, you cannot reverse its effects. He makes it sound like television is the worst thing that could happen to society, but what about anything else that makes society bad. Some of what television does for us is a good thing and we can use television for its good things. It is here to stay so why not try to make it

better. (28) David Smith

fourOne7 Class of 06

Voices from the Front

“I don’t understand what Postman means by the concept of resonance.”

Resonance

“It’s similar to putting a drop of food coloring in a glass of clean water. The water does not immediately turn blue, rather the color slowly

flows through the water.”

Voices from the Front

• In the river analogy, what does Postman mean when he says the TV pollutes public communication?

“the river does not disappear, nor does all of its uses, but its value has been seriously diminished and its degraded condition will have harmful effects through-out the landscape.”

Neil Postman

If the book is entitled Amusing Ourselves

To Death.

What Is Dying?

Channeling Neil Postman

• “I would argue that “news of the day” has become polluted by the biases of television. Our political discourses, e.g. presidential debates, have become polluted by television. Think about the nature of a debate in school in which the fundamental medium is oral communication.

But let me ask you this…

How is a debate on television similar to but very different from debate as it was originally

conceived and practiced?

Voices From The Front

“Chapter two was rather hard to understand because at times Postman slammed how television was just plain junk.”

The best things on television are junk," Postman says in Chapter why does he feel that the best things on television are junk?

jj

Junk = Not Serious

Channeling Neil Postman

• “By junk television I mean television which does not have a serious purpose. You should not confuse my personal beliefs about the quality of television with the nature of my argument. How one chooses to entertain and amuse oneself is not central to my argument. If we want to call programs such as Survivor “reality programming” I think that is rather foolish, but or no particular consequence. But if we want to call programs such as 48 hours “news” or reality programming, that should concern us.”

Voices From The Front

“Does Uncle Neil not realize that something said on the news is written, rewritten and

revised by people more intelligent than he?”

Channeling Neil Postman

• I would certainly hope that our media would seek to find our “best and our brightest” to be our “newstellers” and “truthtellers.”

Furthermore let me ask you this….

Suppose, we have all these intellegent people constructing the news, how might the medium they work in constrain the expression of their intelligence?”

But let me ask you this….

But I wonder if a person’s ability to think, to reason, to argue, to write are the most important criteria we use in selecting our “truth-tellers.” What do you think?

Channeling Neil Postman

• “I would hope you could continue to watch as much news as possible, you will be a more informed citizen, you will be in a better position to to become more socially conscious and informed communication professional.”

But let me ask you this…..

• But, when time permits try to deepen your understanding of what interests you by affording yourself the opportunity that good newspapers, good books, and good magazines furnishes us.” What can be gained from the print medium, that generally can not be gained from television?

“Technology education does not imply a negative attitude toward technology. It does imply a critical attitude. To be against technology makes no more sense that to be against food. We can’t live without either…Technology education aims at students learning about what technology helps us to do and what it hinders us from doing.”

Neil PostmanThe End of Education

Channeling Neil Postman

• “You should not confuse my personal, political and religious beliefs or my uses of television with the nature of my argument. I love to watch movies and sports. We are only seduced by television when we believe that we can be an informed citizens, if we rely only on television to learn about our world”

But let me ask you this….

Do you believe you can be an informed citizen if you rely only on television for you information about the world?

Voices From The Front

• “but why have some shows like Entertainment Tonight and ad 48 Hours

become so reliable.”

Voices From The Front

• Is this a critical perspective on the influence of television on social behavior as a whole?

• Isn’t Postman’s criticism really directed at the way television functions in our society and not at the medium of television per se?

• Is this a critical perspective on the television industry and television professionals?

What do you think?

Is Postman’s first concern the content of messages or the form of the medium?

Voices From The Front

“At the end of the chapter, Postman makes himself seem more human by admitting to the pleasures television has to offer. I am starting to give more credibility to his ideas now that I know he gives in to the seduction of television.”

“Lets sit down and think a little bit more carefully about what you just said. You appear to be judging the credibility of my arguments based on feeling an affinity with me personally, rather than evaluating the nature of my argument.”

“Professor Kasch, has told me that there is is this new tool which students use to decide which classes and professors to take, but that the majority of the brief asssessment do not even mention learning.”

• She is extremely nice and very helpful. She is a pretty easy grader

• He is the nicest professor here.• Plus he really annoyingly sounds like a race

announcer.• As BORING as communication tends to be

sometimes…she makes it fun. • The class was pretty easy and she wasn't a really

hard grader.• I loved her, i thought she was fun.• Minimum effort=Easy A! Sweet!! 

 

And I think I disagree...

Postman seems to contradict himself when he says that “…at no point do I care to claim that changes in media bring about change in the structures of people’s minds or change in their cognitive capabilities.” Isn’t the whole book about the changes out society has gone through due to the effects of television?

MEDIUM MESSAGE

CULTURE

MIND

No Causal or Direct Relationships

What Is Intelligence?

Intelligence is the ability to understand an ever widening series of interrelationships

• Public Discourse

• The Televisual Medium

• The Biases of the Televisual Medium

• The Substance of Messages Emanating From Public Discourse

• The Ways People Perceive and Think About Their World

Voices From The Front

“He says that oral people are not less developed intellectually than writing people, and that television people are not less intellectual than writing people, and that his argument is limited to saying that the shift changes only the structure of public discourse….so I do not understand whether he believes that the shift is positive or not.”

“Or is Postman referring to the idea that print now has to take on some of the characteristics of television in order to survive as a medium”

What Does It Mean To Say?

Mediums Influence Epistemology

The Process By How We Come To Know

Voices From The Front

Why are mediums like different mirrors?

“stupidity is accomplished with the larynx, tongue, lips, and teeth; which is to say, stupidity is chiefly embodied in talk. It is true enough that our ways of talking are controlled by the way we manage our minds, and no one is quite sure what the mind is. But we are sure that the main expression of mind is sentences. When we are thinking, we are mostly arranging sentences in our head. When we are thinking stupidly, we are arranging stupid sentences. The word in a word, brings forth the act….the curriculum must be thought of as releasing students from the pain of badly practicing stupid talk and being victimized by it.”

Neil PostmanAmusing Ourselves To Death