Social Media Deep Dive: AOTD Ch 6-8 by mrobbins6

Skogen - Chapter 8

tskogen — 2018-02-28 23:09:34 UTC

In chapter 8, Postman offers a discussion on how television (and, applicable to our time, internet/social media) has transformed religion into another form of entertainment. Postman says, on pages 116 and 117 that, "Everything that makes religion an historic, profound and sacred human activity is stripped away. There is no ritual, no dogma, no tradition, no theology, and no spiritual transcendence. On these shows, preacher is tops...". This is Postman arguing that modern media is stripping away what is important about people's faith. In my world, that comes into play with a Facebook account I follow: "Hey God. Hey John." John is a hugely religious man, and his posts are meant to help inspire people's faith in God and in themselves. However, he doesn't discuss anything Biblical or traditional when he posts; he instead writes a scene, with himself as the main character and God as a secondary support. In doing this, he falls into the same trap that the televangelists Postman mentions (Reverend Terry, Pat Robinson, and Jimmy Swaggert) have, and uses his page more as entertainment than as a true discourse of his faith.

Kikuchi- Chapter 7

2018-03-01 05:10:29 UTC

In chapter 7, Postman touches on subjects which include how easily we look past a lot of news given to us, and how we manage to only view news topics that look interesting rather than how important they are. He also goes in depth about stories and news and how stories last about 45 seconds, which is either a cause or symptom of the suggestion that no story has any serious implication or importance to the viewer's life. Medias use of eye catching covers of news stories captures the audiences attention, which keeps them from not reflecting too long on the story. When viewers are given stories that concern a topic which is very disheartening and sad, that emotion only stays with the audience for so long. Because viewers know that even the most "grave" story will soon be replaced by commercials that will "diffuse the import of the news," they can never fully process the depth of any information ( Postman 104). An example of this is this news topic concerning the recent school shooting in Florida. The news source decided to use a caption which grabbed the audiences attention which invoked pathos, making the viewer more intrigued. Living as a millennial in this society, we are constantly seeing stories like this, and over time we are conditioned to thinking its the "norm". Mass shootings are so common in our society that we don't think twice about it when one does occur. If one does happen, then we get over it quickly and our emotions change and are set back to, as you will, our "default". This relates back to how these stories are only 45 seconds long. In this case they aren't actually this short, but as a viewer it does seem like it, since we are so used to seeing these types of news headlines and stories. After realizing how used we are to this, its a very depressing thing to think about.

Pavon-Snapchat

spavonsoriano — 2018-03-01 06:03:58 UTC

In chapter 7, Postman talks about the news and its real purpose. People watch the news to get informed about what is going on around the world, right? According to Postman, the news is only for entertainment. He goes into depth with the news by talking about the placement and use of music, anchormen, and commercials used. On page 102, Postman states, “...to create mood and provide a leitmotif for the entertainment”. All of those elements are used to diffuse the news and to entertain the audience. I’ve never thought of the news from this perspective until today, I always thought that the news I watched was just to inform me of what's going on. At first, I thought his argument was bizarre but the more I thought about the news, the more I was able to see the entertainment factor. We rely on the news for information but these news outlet’s main purpose is to get views by entertaining. He also states on page 104, “...by a series of commercials that will, in an instant, defuse the import of news” (Postman). How are we supposed to get reliable information if they’re diffusing their information? For my platform, I decided to use Snapchat. I depend on the Snapchat stories to give me my daily news. After reading chapter 7, I was able to see the elements that he talked about. With each news story, I noticed the music, the ads halfway through, and the anchormen and women. Their sole purpose isn't to provide the daily news to the ones who watch their story. The news outlets set up a mood and diffuse the information they are providing through music and ads/ commercials. It makes me wonder if the news outlets I heavily depend on are even credible.

Lackore-Chapter 6

2018-03-01 14:11:26 UTC

In chapter 7, Postman discusses the "liberal democracy" of the television. This term means that the televisions content is a lot less confined than that of a book. The result of this can be seen on page 86 when Postman writes, "...this has occurred simultaneously with the decline of America's moral and political prestige...." This quote explains that as television shows more and more of everything, people's morals will decrease. This direct relationship can also be seen on social media. As more and more videos were released on YouTube's platform, the comments got more and more toxic. When the platform just started out, the comments were harmless and usually complimented the creator. However, as you can see in the image below, the comments on YouTube now are all toxic and insulting. This is a result of the creation of more and more content that has allowed these comments to thrive on YouTube. Comments such as these show the moral decline of people with the release of more content.

Louie-Facebook

2018-03-01 15:18:00 UTC

In chapter 6, Postman talks about how entertainment has become the center of how the world views an experience that they had. Although, Postman doesn't discuss the fact that television is entertaining, but what concerns him is that television has "made entertainment itself the natural format for the representation of all experience" (87). In other words, by over-saturating people with entertainment, it has shaped its discourse as one entirely centered around entertainment.
The piece fake news that I saw on Facebook. The photo is of a video showing a police officer escorting a homeless man out of a McDonald's. The man taking the video is claiming that he took this man off of the street and brought him to McDonald's to get something to eat. The police officer was removing the man for "trespassing" when clearly the man was doing nothing, but eating. This just goes to show that people are going to judge others by the way they look. It didn't matter that the homeless man was doing nothing, the only thing that mattered was his appearance.

Deaderick- Chapter 6

2018-03-01 17:43:27 UTC

Within chapter six of Amusing Ourselves To Death, Postman states, “To say it still another way: Entertainment is the supraideology of all discourse on television. No matter what is depicted or from what point of view, the overarching presumption is that it is there for our amusement and pleasure” (Postman 87). When Postman states this he is trying to convey to his audience that the television and the media that is shown is only for the amusement of its audience. Postman wants his audience to see this because then they will be able to realize; television, even the news sources are only for amusement. Another example of Chavez conveying to his audience is when he states, “ Everything about a news show tells us this— the good looks and amiability of the cast, their pleasant banter, the exciting music that opens and closes the show, the vivid film footage, the attraction commercials— all these and more suggest that what we have just seen is no cause for weeping. A news show, to put it plainly, is a format for entertainment , not for education, reflection or catharsis” (Postman 87-88). With this statement, Postman is trying to get his audience to view television, even news sources, as entertainment. He uses an example when a news station will talk about death, and instead of them having a mournful tone about it. Rather they use music, film footage, and commercials to attract the audience to the news even more. All things considered, Postman uses logic to convey his ideas about television to inform his audience that it is for amusement rather than for information.

Ferradas Chapter 6

2018-03-01 18:18:31 UTC

In Chapter 6 of A.O.T.D., Postman discusses television and entertainment as a medium. On page 87, he says, "...not that television is entertaining, but that it has made entertainment itself the natural format for the representation of all experience." In the sentence he is saying that since we as humans have been filled with entertainment on the daily, we tend to base/center our whole lives around it. For example, Kylie Jenner was MIA for about 6 months and the rumors started that she was pregnant. Everyone was intrigued about her story and if she was really pregnant or not. Then, when she finally revealed she was pregnant, everyone was overjoyed and went wild. Her instagram post got over 17 million likes. Why? Because our minds have been so used to listening to the media and television, that celebrities lives is what entertains us.

Moran- E! News

2018-03-01 19:11:56 UTC

Chapter 6 of AOTD was about how television is the median now for conversation, and that the main reason for it now is entertainment. This includes anything from court cases, all the way to the news. Postman believes that entertainment is median for conversing. This philosophy can be seen during modern times. There is multiple tv shows and magazines that’s sole purpose is just to inform their audience about the daily lives / events of celebrities, such as E! News and TMZ. This shows just how caught up the average viewer is.

Nilsen- CBS

enilsen — 2018-03-01 19:51:03 UTC

In Chapter 6, Postman opposes that television can be, “used to support the literate tradition” (83). Postman suggests that television is not a step of evolution for the literate tradition but its own form of medium. Television is centered around entertainment instead of a medium for information. Every type of public discourse: education, religion, safety, politics, and cultural differences has been turned into some form of show business. He suggests that news does not aim to be taken seriously, but rather as a fun experience of good-looking, amiable people set against colorful backdrops. The potential depth of any news story is belittled by the emphasis on the program's entertainment value.

Because the top priority of show business is indeed entertainment, Postman justifies his title for our age: "The Age of Show Business". Every business is now the entertainment business, no major forms of information exchange are exempt from the rules of entertainment.

Joshi - Snapchat Articles

2018-03-01 19:58:16 UTC

I found my major takeaway at the end of chapter 6, where Postman essentially summarizes his own personal takeaway in a more argumentative tone. The message that I received was that it is becoming increasingly harder to determine what is worthy of broadcasting on television and media versus what is not. On page 98, Postman writes, “The nature of [show business’s] discourse is changing as the demarcation line between what is show business and what is not becomes harder to see with each passing day.” Although Postman’s argument seems to be more based off of entertainment, I thought that, in modern society, using this quote to describe news is just as accurate, if not more. With an increasingly broad geographic scope, along with tens of thousands of international politicians and scientists, new events or continuations of desired knowledge are more common and more easily accessible. Therefore, newscasters must decide between a broad range of topics as to which of these subjects are and aren’t worthy of researching and broadcasting. I took a screenshot from Snapchat to emphasize my takeaway. Although I use Snapchat a lot, I generally do not read through their news and media because it does not interest me personally. However, the majority of the Snapchat demographic are within my age group, perhaps younger. Snapchat must appeal to its “designated” demographic in order to remain popular and monetized, so therefore, its news and media must be interesting for pre-teens and teenagers. The best news to fit this group would be much less related to politics and international affairs and more to popular people and culture of America. Therefore, Snapchat must decide which news is worthy of sharing, which (in the case of its demographic) would be news about famous figures, such as the Kardashians or famous rappers such as Kodak Black, or about sports, such as the article about the NBA. Other news, though it is still considered news, would not be worthy of broadcasting to a teenage demographic.

Rosello- Youtube

2018-03-01 20:18:10 UTC

In chapter 6, Postman argues that it is hard to have serious discourse when communication through medias such as television. It is hard to determine if it is serious discourse because there are interruptions that can cause the discourse to be short and very hard to be serious. He also argues that the main purpose of forms of media such as television is mainly for entertainment. Television limits the amount of time that discourse can happen. For example, in the video below the 9 yellow marks are time slots for ads. These ads are interrupting the content.

Joshi - Image

2018-03-01 20:32:19 UTC

I did the padlet on a different computer and forgot to upload my image.