Analysis Of Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death

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In Neil Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” we take an in depth look at how different forms of media and technology have transformed our world and our society. He more specifically wanted to point out the dangers and issues that our society faces because of our fixation on television. I think that Posman’s fears should be acknowledged and taken into consideration because television impacts us a lot more than we would like to admit. Postman made a countless number valid arguments throughout his book; among them he argued that, “... definitions of truth are derived, at least in part, from the character of the media of communication through which information is conveyed,”(Postman, 2006, p. 17) Unfortunately, he was correct, in my opinion, when he made this statement. If we look at any TV show that has been or is currently being aired, we have to acknowledge that is has left an impression on our perception of truth in someway. …show more content…

Our idea of truth has changed about the law and justice as shows like Law and Order: SVU have been on the air. A lot of cases that end up being taken to court, end up with juries who are tainted with different ideas of truth because of these tv shows. A phenomenon has occured called the “CSI effect”. Many juries now compare their real life duties to what they have seen on television shows. It has become more and more common that if juries are not presented with “slam dunk” forensic evidence, like they see in crime shows, they are less likely to convict in the case. People have adapted their truth of how criminal cases should be presented, based on fictional crimes that are presented on television. This can be seen as both a good and a bad thing though. It is beneficial for the justice system to be held to higher standards to prevent wrongful convictions, but at the same time if these standards are too high guilty people may

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