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The role of the media in politics
The role of the media in politics
The role of the media in politics
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The media is actually used as a channel of disseminating information to the audience. And the media influence cultural, moral, political, economic and religious values because they tend to set the agenda for its audience. Not only setting the agenda but also framing. The media tend to frame the central organizing ideas for news content, entertainment, which supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis exclusion and elaboration.
An instance of political influence in Neil Postman chapter in “Typographic Mind”, he analyses the speech of Lincoln during the time of debates. This actually links to the series “Blacklist redemption season 1 episode 2” that the political value in which in today’s era seem
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In Typographical America Neil Postman loves the idea of everyone getting involved even uneducated people could react to the discussions.
CONCLUSION
All in all, the three chapters of “Amusing Ourselves to Death” work together theoretically and practically about the media influence towards its audience. Neil Postman asserts the public as victims to whatever media metaphor exists. The media shapes the perception of reality and truth. And that brings one to say that cultural, political, economic, religious and moral values are influenced by the media either negatively or positively.
REFERENCES
Cedars, S. M. (2013, March 24). GradeSaver. Retrieved from http://www.gradesaver.com/amusing-ourselves-to-death/study-guide/summary-chapters-3-5.
Foley, J. (1997, February 22). Pontifical Council for Social Communication. Retrieved from Ethics in Avertising: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_22021997_ethics-in-ad_en.html.
Postman, N. (1985). Amusing Ourselves to Death. London:
Media, the plural form of medium, describes various ways in which we communicate in society. A phone call, email, radio, computer, news on TV, etc. are all forms of media. In our society today, the media plays a significantly large role in influencing society negatively, twisting one’s perspective of the truth. In author Brooke Gladstone’s, The Influencing Machine, she discusses how media is looked at as an “influencing machine,” that’s controlling the mind of its viewers. Throughout the reading, Gladstone guides her readers through perceptions of media and how it influences them to get readers to understand the truth about media and the manipulation behind it.
In the intro of my essay, I listed vague examples about how television impacts society. Throughout my content I did not elaborate on Postman’s believed the age of typography was, and the difference between the past and the age of show business today. In addition, I lacked comparing Postman’s argument to Francis
In his novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman describes to the reader, in detail, the immediate and future dangers of television. The argument starts out in a logical manner, explaining first the differences between today's media-driven society, and yesterday's "typographic America". Postman goes on to discuss in the second half of his book the effects of today's media, politics on television, religion on television, and finally televised educational programs. He explains that the media consists of "fragments of news" (Postman, 1985, p.97), and politics are merely a fashion show. Although Postman's arguments regarding the brevity of the American attention span and the importance of today's mass media are logical, I do not agree with his opinion of television's inability to educate.
Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman is written based on Postman’s opinion that television has impacted the level of public discourse in America in a negative way. Postman begins the story by talking about two significant books: 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In this book, Postman plans to talk about how things in the world, inspired by television, have proved that our world is turning into the one he’s read about in the stories stated above.
In Postman’s novel, we are given the overall thesis with the following phrase: “we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death” (4). It is through this former phrase that Postman is able to convey his critical analysis of the media environment in 1985. His critical analysis revolves around television; he conveys how this technology has altered the way in which Americans think and carry out their daily life. He goes on further to explain how television has reshaped epistemology and has led for Americans to expect some form of “entertainment” from each sector of society. In other words, the way in which we knew something as truth, or acquired knowledge from, has been altered due to television while simultaneously causing for Americans to expect politics, religion, education, and news (just to name a few) to be “entertaining.”
Newspaper, radio, film, television. These are only a few of the various forms media can take. From the moment we open our eyes to the instant we shut them, we are surrounded by media and absorb the information it hurls at us in an osmosis-like manner. The news ranges from the latest terror attack and political scandals to supposed UFO sightings and scandals involving sandals. We as an audience tend to focus more on the message the media relays rather than on the medium in which it is presented to us.
In his argument, Postman described how technology is affecting our way of thinking. The main suspect in this case is television. In his book, Postman pointed out one of the significant facts in the twentieth century, which was: “the decline of the Age of Typography and the ascendancy of the Age of Television”(8). As soon as the shift began, the social institutions involved in printed content were forced to learn the language of the television. Since television’s content is entertainment-oriented, serious forms of public discussions were also modified to be more entertaining. Postman believes that, “whatever the original and limited of its use may have been, a medium has the power to fly far beyond that context into new and unexpected ones”(18). When exposed to writing, humans’ minds are still able to respond with a critical reaction. But that is not the case with television and modern-day media. This is because of what Postman described as “media-metaphor”. He suggested that the media works like a metaphor, giving us powerful implications to enforce their definition of reality. Many television programs and advertisement are inexplicitly telling us
“The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining” (87). Postman’s main concern does not rest in the, “...Junk entertainment” (159) shows, but when the programs take the seriousness out of a subject matter. Worse yet, “The problems come when we try to live in them” (77). The obvious gap of discourse can be seen evident when he mentions the Lincoln-Douglas debates, with attentive audiences listening to oratory for a long period of time, while constructing arguments of both opponents claims (45-47). Soon this “Age of Exposition” (77) gave way to the “Age of Show Business” (83). Irrelevant Information found its way through the telegraph, that ultimately creates no effect on the receiver as, “Facts push other facts into and out of consciousness at speeds that neither permit nor require evaluation” (70). A variety of information does not mean all can be useful and beneficial. The public's attention shifts to photographs that are attached to a story, creating an illusion of context. “...Pseudo-context provides [no] action, or problem-solving, or change…[but] to amuse” (76). Postman reminds the audience that information will not lose
Postman’s main argument here is that the power of typography has the ability to control discourse. When language is controlled by print, an idea, a fact, or a claim is the result. And today we have this unrelenting demand to understand and know everything we are presented with. Print gave priority to the intellectual and rational mind, therefore encouraging serious, logical public discourse. Postman supports this claim by arguing that the Thomas Paine’s “Age of Reason”, a written pamphlet that challenged the religious and political institutions of the 18th century, was coexistent with the growth of print culture. Paine scrutinized the Bible and charged its divine claims as false. He did this through careful analysis and came up with logical conclusions. In essence, typography and print created and changed people’s identities and beliefs.
According to Dr. Jean Louis Ntang Beb and Dr. Shantella Sherman, people are largely impacted by entertainment and different forms as media when they become more readily available and prominent in people’s lives. Postman refers to this as ‘media – metaphors’ that “classify the world for us, sequence it, frame it, enlarge it, reduce it, color it, [and] argue a case for what the world is like” (10). The media is able to do this because it knows it has a heavy influence in an individual's life. When an entity has knowledge of power, it is able to manipulate its delivery in anyway it wants. This is because at the end of the day, even if the information received is not practical, society will still end up talking about with
The media has motivated the people to do actions and provided them stereotypes about other people. The media can plat important role in shaping public response by telling the news in specific ways to make people focus about specific news. Today, people can get the news in several ways. The traditional ways are still available beside the social media that changes people ways to get news. People in social media can look at the news fast, and from different perspectives.
Throughout American history, important, credible individuals have given persuasive speeches on various issues to diverse audiences.
Media also influences the thinking of people and society in general through entertainment as well as advertising and marketing campaigns. It is the creative ideas and boost to the imagination that people get once they watch a television show, movie, commercial or listen to a certain song. The impact any of these forms of media can have on an individual’s thinking can change in that most of them view the various stars in the movies, TV or the music industry as role models and as a result, they start imitating them. This type of influence oftentimes will influence the way someone views a political
The cultivation theory suggests that “the cultivation of attitudes is based on attitudes already present in our society and that the media take those attitudes which are already present and re-present them bundled in a different packaging to their audiences” (Griffin, p.366). The Truman Show is an excellent example of the cultivation theory as it gives us an interesting insight into the effects that the media has on society. It is no secret that the media has altered our way of living. From the fears they can instill from the news we watch, to the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the sports we watch and even our political opinions are all influenced in some way shape or form by the media.
Media technologies are becoming an important aspect of today’s society. Each and every day, people interact with media of many different forms. Media is commonly defined as being a channel of communication. Radio, newspapers, and television are all examples of media. It is impossible to assume that media is made up of completely unbiased information and that the media companies do not impose their own control upon the information being supplied to media users. Since many people use media very frequently, it is obvious to assume that it has affects on people. According to the text book Media Now, "media effects are changes in knowledge, attitude, or behavior that result from exposure to the mass media," (386). This leaves us with many unanswered questions about media and its influences. This paper will look at how the effects of media are determined and explore the main affects on today’s society - violence, prejudice, and sexual behavior.