Analysis: Amusing Ourselves To Death By Neil Postman

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Postman’s Predictions: Putting It To The Test Would you lose your journalistic integrity over one million dollars just to increase your audience base? For me personally I would decline the money and not subject my audience to an unwanted change for personal gain. Neil Postman’s book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, argues that television is all about entertainment and nothing else. Postman makes several points in his book pertaining to televised news as examples. On the evening of January 31 2018, I decided to test Postman’s arguments by tuning into the PBS NewsHour. After putting Postman’s arguments to the test I soon found that they were correct; “if it bleeds it leads”, news anchors are just actors, stories of little value get little air time, and there is an overwhelming disconnect between stories. First, Postman makes a point that networks lead stories cover tragedies as an attention grabber. Another way some people refer to this technique is, “If It Bleeds It Leads”. PBS NewsHour broadcast began with a short two minute story about a train that crashed into a garbage truck. They start off by showing the crashed train and video of rescue workers scrambling around the …show more content…

When studying Postman’s work I found that not only could I see what he was referring to but I could see how it will get worse. 24 hour news networks are running segments on celebrity affairs, “pc culture”, and cute little critters. As a viewer it is hard to watch what passes for news anymore, much less see the value in their methods. Watching the PBS Newshour and seeing Postman’s theories of “if it bleeds it leads, the “now this” mentality, actors as anchors, and utter disconnect between stories was astonishing. Postman saw what the news was and what the news will become in 1985 and I fear it will only get

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