Rich Miller, who publishes the Capital Fax newsletter and blog, posted his analysis of clemency for former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, now serving time for a federal conviction on grounds that have since been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The legal issues involved are complicated and subtle, and Miller's pitch was basically for a dispassionate, rational approach to resolving them. "The deciding factor here," he wrote, "ought to be the law, not passion."
Which prompted a comment in the online CapFax forum that raises the same issues we're studying as we get ready for a FINAL EXAM question on Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" (1985).
"I applaud the dispassionate analysis," said Anonymous, at 8:07 a.m. "Reason is sorely lacking in today’s cable-TV-driven-screamfest marketplace of ideas."
Perfect.
Ask yourselves as we get into Postman's analysis of public discourse: How do the trends that Postman identified in 1985 contribute to today's screamfest?
A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.
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About Me
- Pete
- Springfield (Ill.), United States
- I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.
12 comments:
He predicted the t.v. commercials right. They dont talk about the product and whats good about it they just make seem if you get this product it will change your life. There trying to make people beleive if they get this product there dreams will come true. Like the new perfume commercial. i dont remember what brand but it shows a couple out in the middle of this pretty blue ocean in a nice big boat. Thats not going to happen just because you buy a bottle of perfume.
I believe Postman is pretty right in what he says. We are uninformed in a lot of major issues of the world. We as a society focus more of drama and disasters than our or others government and history. For example, not many people stay up on politics and some don't even vote, but they still complain and threaten the campaigners for what they are doing to this country or other countries. But on the other side of things, do we NEED to know everything? Not every issue in the world is necessary to know. I personally don’t want to know about the governmentally issues of Bulgaria. Therefore, yes he is correct and our society is continually uninterested in “serious” issues but how far do we have to go to be claimed “informed.”
I think he had the right idea on stuff, everything is on tv or ads so that we will buy it because it is there to make a world of difference. Many of the products that are shown we don't even know why we buy them other than the fact that they know how to market them well. We see everything that we dont need to and we dont hear everything that is on the news now, we don't focus on the war over seas or seeing what is happening in government, we have all of the trash thrown at us from Hollywood and we would much rather hear that then the real life stuff happening now, that might possibly change our lives.
"The television commercial is not at all about the character of products to be consumed. It is about the character of the consumers of products. Images of movie stars and famous athletes, of serene lakes and macho fishing trips, of elegant dinners and romantic interludes, of happy families packing their station wagons for a picnic in the country- these tell nothing about the products being sold."
-I can agree with what he is saying there because many commercials do not advertise products very well like they should. They over do it a little at times. I can also see where he is coming from on the world not knowing as much as they should. Many people are focused on reality shows and other things besides the news and current events, but everybody is going to pay attention to what they are interested in.
Postman's main theory was that the mass media -- especially television -- were blurring the lines between entertainment and serious subjects like politics and government, education, religion. Because we seek amusement rather than knowledge" . This is exactly true. We rather know the lives of messed up celeberties lives like Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan and their drug issues rather then the wargoing on outside our country and what our government is doing with our tax dollars
“Were blurring the lines between entertainment and serious subjects like politics and government, education, religion.” He is right though; today’s news media is a business and like any business it does what it needs to do in order to make a profit. It’s really our fault if you look at it; we turn in to watch celebrity gossip and arguments more than an actual informative unbiased news show. So when that’s what the news talks about are we really that surprised that they aren’t covering the really important news but rather gossip?
Postman is pretty much right on with his ideals. Our society is very much caught up in drama and gossip and less concerned with the world as a whole. Not every issue in the world is necessary to know, However a general understanding of world issues should be accessable. And maybe we should start at the beginning in schools and teach how important whats happening in the world actual is.
Postman is correct about how things are presented to us on a daily basis. most americans dont care for world wide news or any news. Haley is right about how most americans are not informed. plus when postman was talking about tv ads on how they dont talk about the product or whats in it or the effects becuase its not attractive but its still not ok. Tv ads are all about attraction puting in things that makes you wonder why its in there sometimes ads look like other ads but its something completly different. like the pepsi ad has a guy taping on bottles, shaking a box of pepsi cans, and etc. making music with pepsi cans. i told myslef what does this have to do with pepsi I thought the commercial sucked big time
It seems he is right in about blurring the lines between entertainment and serious subjects. This is what we want to hear about though, celebrities or political figures talked about like celebrities. We aren't being informed seriously about seious topics because we aren't as interested as maybe we should be.
Commericals never really go into detail on what their products are, they just keep stating that this is the product for you. A perect example is cigarette ads, they always have a nice and sucessful looking man or woman smoking them, to make us the buyers think that we could be them by perhaps by a pack of their cigarettes, which is of course un true.
Its true. Viewers are more concerned on gossip or drama in the media than more important things that are going on in our world today. And I agree with Haley, people who don't participate in politcs, voting, etc, should not be allowed to sit there and complain about them when they dont try and do anything about it. As far as commericals go, they tend not to go into detail about the product they just want you to think you have to have it! And they do whatever they can to catch the attention of every viewer.
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