A review by rujein
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman

challenging informative medium-paced

3.0

Postman makes the argument that television has brought american into a Huxleyan world, where information is simplistic and devoid of analysis. Analyses form of television - short, focus on visuals etc. Generally agree on his points, though i think sometimes he takes that argument too far (e.g. adding music to news doesn’t really make it less serious??). 

He uses anecdotal examples to substantiate his points and there is a niggling feeling that perhaps he is cherry-picking examples (are there really NO television programmes which encourage reflection?). Furthermore, he seems to glorify print and the print age a bit too much (oh everyone was so rational then, and everyone could follow all the political arguments) - again, using anecdotal evidence which is not wholly convincing (for example he just states that audiences were able to follow an hours-long debate between lincoln and another politician, with zero evidence whatsoever). There are benefits to television that Postman entirely ignores (What about those who cannot access print for whatever reason? What about television leaving room for the audiences’ own interpretation and reflection? What do dramas or comedies bring to us?), and he valorises “rationality” a bit much without considering that subjectivity is always involved. What is wrong with transmitting a message or educating while entertaining? For that matter, what is wrong with a world with a bit more levity (considering that Postman’s analysis of the print age draws largely from America’s early years as a nation, it seems likely to me that a high level of engagement with politics and debates was very necessary to the daily lives of its people, unlike today). 

 

In the end, I have the feeling that Postman got to the right answer using the wrong method. Yes, Postman is right that today’s world has been mediatised and politics is more about engagement than ideas, but I’m doubtful that it was really better in the print age, and i’m doubtful that it’s entirely due to television.