Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse Analysis

The human race has always used many ways to communicate amongst one another efficiently in order to accommodate what is known as public discourse. Over a period of time, the use of mediums during the Age of Exposition and Age of Show Business over time have begun to change the dynamic of public discourse in their own unique way. The purpose of Neil Postman’s novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, is spreading awareness to his audience, the public of America, about how he views the incorporation of said mediums associated with entertainment and amusement, to have gradually degraded the character of public discourse while those focused on reason and order have enhanced it.
Before the introduction of …show more content…
The invention of the printing press brought forth the successor to oral tradition, written word. “The written word endures, the spoken word disappears” (Postman 63). This quote shows how typography’s, the result of the written word, impact allowed society within that time period to educate themselves through reason and eloquence found in written text. This was apparent in arguments concerning religion and debates concerning political and ethical views. The exchange of ideals within the Age of Exposition challenged individuals to analyze information within literary texts. This allowed the public to determine whether or not to live by these archetypes. Such interactions educated communities as a whole and allowed them to express individuality by letting them live by what they perceived to be true. This new innovation not only allowed someone to share their thoughts with others, but it allowed them to share their thoughts with themselves. “One must achieve a certain distance from the words themselves… encouraged by isolated and impersonal text” (Postman 111). The intrigue of this topic generated many debates between strong political figures, Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, within that time period. These debates incorporated argumentative language and rhetorical resources as a means of conveying one's point of view that is expressed through public discourse. Postman dubs this era the Age of Exposition due to its focus on reason, order, …show more content…
The main mediums of this age, Television and photography, had a major influence on the population through their control over the media through commercials and advertisements. They tried to expand upon the success of typography by informing people through a visualization of what they were reading. This backfires immensely because, like typography, television and photography try to educate society on either the past through photographs or the present through television. Postman makes this seem problematic in the sense that a medium cannot entertain its audience through images and amusement while effectively informing them at the same time. The epistemology of both mediums is pivotal in the regression of typography due to their immense popularity and focus on entertainment. As a result, there was a decrease in the population’s reliance on typography due to the fact that people’s main source of discourse, amusement ,and information was the television, which ended up having the most impact on public discourse. Postman argues that both mediums from the Age of Show Business, television especially, are not the most effective when incorporated with conveying to its audience the ideals of public discourse. “I bring forward these quixotic uses of television to ridicule the hope… that television can be used to support the literature tradition” (Postman 161). The incompatibility between

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Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse Analysis

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