In the first of two year-end reviews, I looked at the most significant TV-related stories, including a few milestone events, none more interesting than the publication this week of a 20th anniversary edition of Neil Postman's classic piece of television criticism, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Political Discourse in an Age of Show Business.
Link: Kansas City Star | 12/25/2005 | The biggest stories of 2005.
Not everyone in 1985 felt as strongly as Postman did. But as educators started teaching his book, and TV exploded into 500 channels of diversion, many readers (myself included) started to realize how right he was. For instance, Postman wrote that electronic news created a psychotic state of affairs in which a story about war or tragedy was immediately followed by an item about, say, Jennifer Aniston's divorce or a piece of news video that showed a skydiver surviving a fall from 10,000 feet. What Postman couldn't foresee, but which surely would not surprise him, is that the stories about Aniston and the skydiver would not only follow more serious news, they would become serious news.
I recently spoke with Neil Postman's son Andrew, who wrote the introduction for the new edition. Andrew Postman isn't entirely in agreement with his father's conclusions, and there are developments the old professor did not foresee. Yet he also found that young people still find this book speaks to them today, even though it was written when they were in diapers and three TV networks reigned.
Here's an edited version of our conversation.
Download andrewpostman.mp3 (10:00)
I remember having to read Postman's book as a senior in college. Bored the crap out of me. It wasn't that he didn't have valid points, he was just a boring writer.
For my money, purchase the Roger Waters CD "Amused to Death" instead of Postman's book. Same themes, virtually the same title, and much more entertaining.
Posted by: Kevin Marousek | December 29, 2005 at 08:02 PM