
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
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Narrated by:
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Jeff Riggenbach
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By:
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Neil Postman
In this eloquent and persuasive book, Neil Postman examines the deep and broad effects of television culture on the manner in which we conduct our public affairs, and how "entertainment values" have corrupted the very way we think.
As politics, news, religion, education, and commerce are given less and less expression in the form of the printed word, they are rapidly being reshaped to suit the requirements of television. And because television is a visual medium, whose images are most pleasurably apprehended when they are fast-moving and dynamic, discourse on television has little tolerance for argument, hypothesis, or explanation. Postman argues that public discourse, the advancing of arguments in logical order for the public good, once a hallmark of American culture, is being converted from exposition and explanation to entertainment.
©1985 Neil Postman (P)1994 Blackstone Audio Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















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What made the experience of listening to Amusing Ourselves to Death the most enjoyable?
Seriously negative reviewers, this book is so important for ANYONE and EVERYONE to be exposed to. Use the feature of Audible to slow down the reading speed of the book.This book, along with books like The Influencing Machine and Republic Lost, are what are going to make difference in how hard or soft the USA falls from it's place as the super power in the world.
Reviewing based on the speed of the reading...you've GOT to be KIDDING ME.
JUST SLOW DOWN THE READING SPEED
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A warning to the TV generation
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A mandatory read
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Dated But, Forward thinking from a unique voice.
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I can't wait to read more recent works by Neil Postman.
Should be mandatory reading in this era.
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Food for thought
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The book was actually about how TVs effect on society changes everything into entertainment.
He talks about a lot of problems with changing everything into entertainment.
Like how it corrodes politics, public discourse, journalism, and education.
For some reason I had trouble giving a good summary on what this book is about.
(I can't tell if thats due to unclear main points from the writer, or just me having gaps in my memory)
That being said, I think he's right.
Even more so in the age of Social Media, Netflix, and video games. (All of these are VERY lucrative businesses right now. I think in 2019 the entertainment industry got $100 billion in investment, that's as much as the oil industry)
It's really interesting how something that happened to TV in the past is also happening on social media right now.
This book revealed to me that TV and social media often suffer from the same problems.
Both of which are causing serious damage to society in all these ways mentioned in the book.
I guess TV and social media are more similar than we realize.
Good
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Wish I had read/listened to this years ago
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insightful and worth the time listening
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This book is 5 star reading.
Love me some Neil Postman
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