In chapter seven, “Now…This” Neil Postman makes the point that the medium of television has changed what “news” now is and as a result has changed our values in many areas of our lives. That television has greatly changed how we relate with the world. Entertainment and the fast and segmented pace of television has been incorporated in the other aspects of our lives and may in time engulf them. Below are the categories that Postman talks about in this chapter and what he has to say on how television has morphed our values on them. Appearance and Credibility
Postman opens up this chapter with the fact that television is all about the image. People want to be entertained with attractive and credible/believable faces. He makes the point that television is taking away reality and the true credibility of factual information. On television, the way the information is being given to you is more important than the actual information itself. He references how American society cares very little about the “lies” President Regan has said because he fits the frame for TV. appearance and credibility. And that President Nixon’s lies were only big news because he “looked” like a liar. Nixon was an example of someone who is not credible.
Appearance is not only applied to the people on television. The setup of TV is also very visually appealing, music is added to the daily news for entertainment purposes and the emotional expressions of the newscasters are very calm and generic, even when talking about tragic or serious events. TV is set up to please not to inform. Segmentation and Discontinuity
The medium of TV is setup in order to fit several intriguing stories in a limited amount of airtime along with numerous commercial advertisements. Postman talks about how discontinuous television is. That what was on 30 minutes ago has no relation whatsoever to what is on now, that the emotions we felt during one program will be discontinued to the nest program. That with the news, as the reporter jumps from story to story so does our emotions. Our feelings never linger and that is because the amount of time given for each story, program, etc. doesn’t have the capability of making much of an impact on us. As a result of this, Postman argues that the news is not really news, its light entertainment and that because of the appealing fast pace of television people no longer have interest in watching an in depth and non-entertaining lecture on the news. The segmentation of television has also ran into everyday life and has created the idea that the past has nothing to do with the present and the present has nothing to do with the future. Life isn’t perceived as continuous anymore. It is perceived to work the same way that television does. Gullibility
Because Americans cannot depict lies from the truth (because of appearance and credibility) Americans have become very detached and uninformed. Postman makes note that previous leaders said that a country without the ability to tell the truth from lies is in for trouble. Postman makes the point that it is very bad for society because we will turn into an oblivious population so amused by the media and technology that we will “dance and dream” ourselves into a world much like the on described by Aldous Huxley in his book Brave New World. Television’s Influence
Postman addresses the television is so influential that is rubbing of on other mediums for the news; magazines and newspapers. Now magazines are now becoming entirely about entertainment for example People magazine and Us Weekly. And USA Today is also using a similar format to that of TV’s. And what’s worse is that those mediums feed of each other and promote more empty entertainment. From this has resulted in show like “Entertainment Tonight” which makes celebrity news serious topics. A Change in Our Values
Postman concludes his chapter with the idea that because of television and the way it is formatted allows for a very unrealistic and dysfunctional atmosphere which is alright but the problem is, is that TV is very influential and its way of communicating information has spread to many of the other aspects in American life and it is changing our values as a society and not for the better.
Important and difficult vocab:
"Now... This" is a means of acknowledging the fact that the world has been sped up by electronic media and epistemology has been sensationalized in order to entertain the public. This chapter explains how television provides a new definition of truth of verisimlitude or the apperance of truth. For example when the news reads a telepromt, it looks as though they are being truthful but we can't really tell if they are lieing or not. Newscaters do not apper to grasp the meaning of what they are saying. They have no repect for you or the subject because they interrupt our thought with a commercial. News is packaged as entertainment. We are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed. This is called disinformation- when tv alters the meaning of being informed by creating a species of information. As well as the show Dateline, they made us to believe that Dan killed his wife because that was more interesting to the audience. The book talks about America having their own opinion for everything. An opinion has transfored into an emotion overtime. "We are adjusted to now this world of news that all assumtions of coherence have vanished. (Postman110 Par 2)"
Visual Representation: http://youtu.be/M80KtjmIFy0 http://youtu.be/P-Dky4zWkko
These news parodies depict Postman's argument that, "television is the paradigm for our conception of public information." The news in particular, has defined what we accept as news, and defines how we respond to it. In the clips, the news is clearly being mocked in many ways beginning with the way news is presented. Like Postman illustrates, the news is incoherent, irrelevant, and out of context. We are given a short introduction on one topic to be quickly lead away to another story not allowing time for a response or thought process to take place. Furtheremore, these news events are read off a script expecting to be accepted as the truth. In reality, we don't know whether this information in fact true, but because television has became our new medium of discourse we have adjusted to it and now accept what television depicts as the truth. Tshe news is not only news but more so entertainment. The news is generated by the most emotional tragedies in order to keep the audiences entertained to obtain more views. As a result, "television programs such as the news turn information such as celebrities and entertainers into serious cultural content," making both the form and content of news entertainment.
Postman's Argument Extended:
Different mediums in society alter the things they value. Postman argues that as television being the medium, people value the things they hear and see on T.V, even if they don't know if it's competely accurate, like the news. He explains how the news' main objective is to entertain and get a lot of viewers - not to be informative. In the article, "The Tick, Tick, Tick of the Time", news blew up from the devistation of September 11, 2001. The article conveys how the media blows up, and stays blown up when juicy stories come into play. Yet, once the tragedy had settled down, the news was still rushing. The article describes that, "After the shock wore off and the smoke cleared, the ticker remained." This quote states that once the media explodes, it isn't easy to stop it, and that once a story is over, a new one comes to its rescue. The excitement never stops. When something so big like 9/11 that happened shows up on the news, it entertains the viewers more than it does inform them. And because the T.V is the new medium, as Postman argues, society finds the news important and necessary to turn in to. The article also states, "In more practical terms, a sense of crisis is good business for TV news. And producers found the ticker to be useful, a way to give viewers a sense that they were getting the most info in the least time and a place to shunt the headlines during the opinion shows that increasingly dominated [[#|cable]] post-9/11." The media is satisfied with any juicy story, even if they have to exaggerate it, because they get views. When the T.V is the medium, people watch it, and people are going to watch things that are interesting, even if it's not the full and [[#|complete]] story. And now today we have things like facebook for entertainment, which also blows up the media whenever something big happens. This is what Postman, and the article, is stating. Entertainment is the main focus in the news, and society will believe anything they hear, which creates a pretty successful medium.
Discussion questions:
How would Postman feel about the new technology age that has been going on over the last 10 years?
If alive today would Postman have a Facebook in order to reach out to more of his fans?
Why do Americans find T.V informational and knowledgeable as well as entertainment? Why do they not realize that T.V is all entertainment?
Why has America become so dependent upon T.V?
Has the internet taken over T.V’s dominance over society? Why? Why not?
When T.V is used to explain serious affairs, what tactics are used to dilute the seriousness of it?
Could T.V used in the right way deal with matters as typography once did, without the entertainment? Why or Why not?
Is there anything within Postman’s argument with which you disagree with? If not which parts resonated with you the most?
Will there ever be able to be a televised debate like the Lincoln- Douglas debates? Explain?
Has the general intelligence of society gone down or just changed since the invention of T.V.?
If T.V is dangerous using Postman’s words how does the internet compare?
In chapter seven, “Now…This” Neil Postman makes the point that the medium of television has changed what “news” now is and as a result has changed our values in many areas of our lives. That television has greatly changed how we relate with the world. Entertainment and the fast and segmented pace of television has been incorporated in the other aspects of our lives and may in time engulf them. Below are the categories that Postman talks about in this chapter and what he has to say on how television has morphed our values on them.
Appearance and Credibility
Postman opens up this chapter with the fact that television is all about the image. People want to be entertained with attractive and credible/believable faces. He makes the point that television is taking away reality and the true credibility of factual information. On television, the way the information is being given to you is more important than the actual information itself. He references how American society cares very little about the “lies” President Regan has said because he fits the frame for TV. appearance and credibility. And that President Nixon’s lies were only big news because he “looked” like a liar. Nixon was an example of someone who is not credible.
Appearance is not only applied to the people on television. The setup of TV is also very visually appealing, music is added to the daily news for entertainment purposes and the emotional expressions of the newscasters are very calm and generic, even when talking about tragic or serious events. TV is set up to please not to inform.
Segmentation and Discontinuity
The medium of TV is setup in order to fit several intriguing stories in a limited amount of airtime along with numerous commercial advertisements. Postman talks about how discontinuous television is. That what was on 30 minutes ago has no relation whatsoever to what is on now, that the emotions we felt during one program will be discontinued to the nest program. That with the news, as the reporter jumps from story to story so does our emotions. Our feelings never linger and that is because the amount of time given for each story, program, etc. doesn’t have the capability of making much of an impact on us. As a result of this, Postman argues that the news is not really news, its light entertainment and that because of the appealing fast pace of television people no longer have interest in watching an in depth and non-entertaining lecture on the news. The segmentation of television has also ran into everyday life and has created the idea that the past has nothing to do with the present and the present has nothing to do with the future. Life isn’t perceived as continuous anymore. It is perceived to work the same way that television does.
Gullibility
Because Americans cannot depict lies from the truth (because of appearance and credibility) Americans have become very detached and uninformed. Postman makes note that previous leaders said that a country without the ability to tell the truth from lies is in for trouble. Postman makes the point that it is very bad for society because we will turn into an oblivious population so amused by the media and technology that we will “dance and dream” ourselves into a world much like the on described by Aldous Huxley in his book Brave New World.
Television’s Influence
Postman addresses the television is so influential that is rubbing of on other mediums for the news; magazines and newspapers. Now magazines are now becoming entirely about entertainment for example People magazine and Us Weekly. And USA Today is also using a similar format to that of TV’s. And what’s worse is that those mediums feed of each other and promote more empty entertainment. From this has resulted in show like “Entertainment Tonight” which makes celebrity news serious topics.
A Change in Our Values
Postman concludes his chapter with the idea that because of television and the way it is formatted allows for a very unrealistic and dysfunctional atmosphere which is alright but the problem is, is that TV is very influential and its way of communicating information has spread to many of the other aspects in American life and it is changing our values as a society and not for the better.
Important and difficult vocab:
"Now... This" is a means of acknowledging the fact that the world has been sped up by electronic media and epistemology has been sensationalized in order to entertain the public. This chapter explains how television provides a new definition of truth of verisimlitude or the apperance of truth. For example when the news reads a telepromt, it looks as though they are being truthful but we can't really tell if they are lieing or not. Newscaters do not apper to grasp the meaning of what they are saying. They have no repect for you or the subject because they interrupt our thought with a commercial. News is packaged as entertainment. We are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed. This is called disinformation- when tv alters the meaning of being informed by creating a species of information. As well as the show Dateline, they made us to believe that Dan killed his wife because that was more interesting to the audience. The book talks about America having their own opinion for everything. An opinion has transfored into an emotion overtime. "We are adjusted to now this world of news that all assumtions of coherence have vanished. (Postman110 Par 2)"
Visual Representation:
http://youtu.be/M80KtjmIFy0
http://youtu.be/P-Dky4zWkko
These news parodies depict Postman's argument that, "television is the paradigm for our conception of public information." The news in particular, has defined what we accept as news, and defines how we respond to it. In the clips, the news is clearly being mocked in many ways beginning with the way news is presented. Like Postman illustrates, the news is incoherent, irrelevant, and out of context. We are given a short introduction on one topic to be quickly lead away to another story not allowing time for a response or thought process to take place. Furtheremore, these news events are read off a script expecting to be accepted as the truth. In reality, we don't know whether this information in fact true, but because television has became our new medium of discourse we have adjusted to it and now accept what television depicts as the truth. Tshe news is not only news but more so entertainment. The news is generated by the most emotional tragedies in order to keep the audiences entertained to obtain more views. As a result, "television programs such as the news turn information such as celebrities and entertainers into serious cultural content," making both the form and content of news entertainment.
Postman's Argument Extended:
Different mediums in society alter the things they value. Postman argues that as television being the medium, people value the things they hear and see on T.V, even if they don't know if it's competely accurate, like the news. He explains how the news' main objective is to entertain and get a lot of viewers - not to be informative. In the article, "The Tick, Tick, Tick of the Time", news blew up from the devistation of September 11, 2001. The article conveys how the media blows up, and stays blown up when juicy stories come into play. Yet, once the tragedy had settled down, the news was still rushing. The article describes that, "After the shock wore off and the smoke cleared, the ticker remained." This quote states that once the media explodes, it isn't easy to stop it, and that once a story is over, a new one comes to its rescue. The excitement never stops. When something so big like 9/11 that happened shows up on the news, it entertains the viewers more than it does inform them. And because the T.V is the new medium, as Postman argues, society finds the news important and necessary to turn in to. The article also states, "In more practical terms, a sense of crisis is good business for TV news. And producers found the ticker to be useful, a way to give viewers a sense that they were getting the most info in the least time and a place to shunt the headlines during the opinion shows that increasingly dominated [[#|cable]] post-9/11." The media is satisfied with any juicy story, even if they have to exaggerate it, because they get views. When the T.V is the medium, people watch it, and people are going to watch things that are interesting, even if it's not the full and [[#|complete]] story. And now today we have things like facebook for entertainment, which also blows up the media whenever something big happens. This is what Postman, and the article, is stating. Entertainment is the main focus in the news, and society will believe anything they hear, which creates a pretty successful medium.
Discussion questions:
How would Postman feel about the new technology age that has been going on over the last 10 years?
If alive today would Postman have a Facebook in order to reach out to more of his fans?
Why do Americans find T.V informational and knowledgeable as well as entertainment? Why do they not realize that T.V is all entertainment?
Why has America become so dependent upon T.V?
Has the internet taken over T.V’s dominance over society? Why? Why not?
When T.V is used to explain serious affairs, what tactics are used to dilute the seriousness of it?
Could T.V used in the right way deal with matters as typography once did, without the entertainment? Why or Why not?
Is there anything within Postman’s argument with which you disagree with? If not which parts resonated with you the most?
Will there ever be able to be a televised debate like the Lincoln- Douglas debates? Explain?
Has the general intelligence of society gone down or just changed since the invention of T.V.?
If T.V is dangerous using Postman’s words how does the internet compare?