In "The Age of Show Business" from Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death, he argues about how risky it is to assume television is merely a natural extension to the printed word. He says it is similar to assuming the electric flashlight is an extension to the candle. Television is its own medium, which uses images as its mode of transmission. The problem comes when something complex, such as a political issue, is being presented. It must take on a form of entertainment to be interesting to the viewer or it will be ignored.
The Newsroom is worse. News has been touched up to seem striking in its presentation. This clip from The Onion News Network illustrates this point. Because news networks need ratings, they need to grab your attention. I have seen reports similar to this one done by networks. This is an extreme example, which makes it hilarious, but at the same time creepy because in this world it seems plausible. - Alan Lira
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTvzlkiz6ZY
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I definitely agree.. in the article Neil Postman tells us how we in a way need to trick ourselves to pay attention to the real facts. News cant just be news and politics cant just be pure politics we need to add something extra to keep our attention. I agree with Neil, It's like we are children and can't just be taught the facts, we need a big show to go along with it so we don't lose interest. A good example of this is SNL, even though saturday night live isn't meant for a news source, many people do get their facts from the show rather than taking the time to watch the regular news stations. During the last election how popular did Tina Fey get for her Sarah Palin impressions? I bet you that more people remembers Sarah Palin's interview with Katie on 20 20 from the Tina Fey and Amy Pohler act rather than the real 20 20 interview.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Hunt
This is a post in response to The Age of Show Business
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I am including a commercial for Apple which shows several great people in history. I felt it contributed to the article because it's ironic to see these great people in a commercial for a computer. The article talks about how Americans can't report on anything serious on television and this emphasizes the point. The point of the commercial is to associate greatness with a computer, which also happens to be television's replacement. The way the article states that television's popularity is attributed to it's versatility and major connection to the outside world is how the internet is revolutionizing this source and almost making television obsolete.