Amusing Ourselves to Death
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| - | '''Neil Postman''' ([[March 8]], [[1931]] - [[October 5]], [[2003]]) was an [[United States|American]] professor, [[media theory|media theorist]], and [[cultural critic]] who is best known by the general public for his 1985 book about television, ''[[Amusing Ourselves to Death]]''. For more than forty years, he was associated with [[New York University]]. Postman was an old-fashioned humanist, who believed that "there is a limit to the promise of new technology, and that it cannot be a substitute for human values." | + | '''''Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business''''' ([[1985]]), is a book by [[Neil Postman]] in which he argues that media of communication inherently influence the conversations carried out over them. Postman posits that [[television]] is the primary means of communication for our culture and it has the property of converting conversations into entertainment so much so that public discourse on important issues has disappeared. Since the treatment of serious issues as entertainment inherently prevents them from being treated as serious issues and indeed since serious issues have been treated as entertainment for so many decades now, the public is no longer aware of these issues in their original sense, but only ''as'' entertainment. ("Conversations" in the sense here of a culture communicating with itself). |
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| + | The book originated with Postman's delivering a talk to the [[Frankfurt]] Booksellers Convention in [[1984]]. He was participating in a panel on [[George Orwell|Orwell's]] ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]'' and the contemporary world. | ||
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| + | It has been translated into eight languages and sold some 2,000,000 copies worldwide. | ||
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Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985), is a book by Neil Postman in which he argues that media of communication inherently influence the conversations carried out over them. Postman posits that television is the primary means of communication for our culture and it has the property of converting conversations into entertainment so much so that public discourse on important issues has disappeared. Since the treatment of serious issues as entertainment inherently prevents them from being treated as serious issues and indeed since serious issues have been treated as entertainment for so many decades now, the public is no longer aware of these issues in their original sense, but only as entertainment. ("Conversations" in the sense here of a culture communicating with itself).
The book originated with Postman's delivering a talk to the Frankfurt Booksellers Convention in 1984. He was participating in a panel on Orwell's 1984 and the contemporary world.
It has been translated into eight languages and sold some 2,000,000 copies worldwide.
