POLI 001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Media Create, Selective Perception, Neil Postman
The Mass Media
Is the mass media responsible for the dumbing down USA?
What are the mass media?
- The means of communicating that are technologically capable of reaching most people
and are economically
Mass Media in The U.S.
- Print media includes newspapers, magazines, and the internet
- Broadcast media include radio, television, & the internet
Amusing ourselves to death/ neil postman read it
- Major point is that news is primarily entertainment oriented
- When America was print-oriented, public discourse was generally coherent, serious, and
rational.
- Typography(the written word) includes:
- Ability to think conceptually, deductively, and sequentially
- Capacity for detachment and objectivity
- Under tv, public discourse is inadequate
- Tv requires minimal skills to comprehend and is largely aimed at emotional gratification.
- Commercials distract and take away from the significance of what is being
communicated
Further Evidence
- The television hypothesis: the belief that television is to blame for the low level of
citizen’s knowledge about public affairs.
- Newspaper readers are typically more highly educated
- Newspaper readers are better informed
- But it is hard to determine causality
Can the internet better inform us because it is predominantly text?
- Unfortunately, probably not.
- Print readers recall more news stories and better understand them
- People read superficially on the internet
Why is U.S. News Entertainment focused?
- Private ownership of news media
- Greater political freedom than nearly any other country in the world
-But it also makes U.S. news media highly dependent on advertising revenues
- Soft news includes discussions of public affairs within an entertainment program
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
The means of communicating that are technologically capable of reaching most people and are economically. Print media includes newspapers, magazines, and the internet. Broadcast media include radio, television, & the internet. Amusing ourselves to death/ neil postman read it. Major point is that news is primarily entertainment oriented. When america was print-oriented, public discourse was generally coherent, serious, and rational. Ability to think conceptually, deductively, and sequentially. Commercials distract and take away from the significance of what is being. Tv requires minimal skills to comprehend and is largely aimed at emotional gratification. communicated. The television hypothesis: the belief that television is to blame for the low level of citizen"s knowledge about public affairs. Newspaper readers are typically more highly educated. But it is hard to determine causality. Print readers recall more news stories and better understand them. Greater political freedom than nearly any other country in the world. But it also makes u. s. news media highly dependent on advertising revenues.
