Amusing Ourselves to Death Chapter 4

In chapter 4 of Postman's book "Amusing Ourselves to Death", Postman has several different quotes that really were interesting and neat. Probably the most interesting quote is the one were he stated that power that the newspapers and other printed media had was because of its position as a monopoly. Nothing else was really able to compete against newspapers because it was the most easily obtained source of media and news events. Eventually, TV news and the internet started to compete against newspapers and it fell from grace.

I really enjoyed this chapter the most out all of the other four. It felt it was relevant to me today and that shows that he did a good job writing something that can always be useful, regardless of the day in age. Newspapers have indeed taken a major hit the past 60 years to do technology and easier access to the media. He points out where newspapers weaknesses were and how those weaknesses led to its downfall. I was never confused about the reading either. He didn't make any statements or claims that I couldn't understand, so I found that to be a good thing as well.

Amusing Ourselves to Death Chapter 2 & 3

In chapter 2 and 3 of the book "Amusing Ourselves to Death", Postman gives out 3 warnings regarding  media as a epistemology. The 3 warning are that changes in media do not change people's cognitive abilities, the shift probably won't include everything, and TV pollutes public communication and its surrounding landscape. I felt like all of the warning made sense and all of them are still true as of today. I was more interested in the 2nd chapter than I was in the first one and I was able to understand everything more easily because I was more interested in the things I was reading.
Chapter 3 was a little less entertaining, but it should provided some factual information that helped to support some of his claims. He discusses de Tocqueville's influential book "Democracy in America" and tells the reader to go out and seek it. He says that a lot his research came from that book and that it helped draw some connections with his own findings. The book is looking a little more interesting than I first thought, but it still looks like it is going to be a slow read.

Media Response #1

When we watched "The Newsroom" in class the other day, it was the first that I had seen an episode of it. I've heard of it before and was intrigued by the concept, but I never got the chance to sit down and actually watch it. I found an article that discusses the plans for a 2nd season despite some negative reviews from critics. Most of the negative reviews attacked the fact that the show was extremely exaggerated and did not do a good job of representing what it is like to be in a newsroom. Although the show may be very realistic, how many shows are realistic? If that's the only qualm they were able to find with the show, then those critics are not qualified to do their jobs. Almost every TV program exaggerates certain aspects of it's show, so therefore every critic should point that out in all of their reviews. Even though I only saw small parts of one episode, I enjoyed it and might try to go out and see the rest of the first season. Hopefully the plans for another season don't fall through because I believe this show is pretty informative as well as entertaining.

 http://articles.philly.com/2012-08-27/news/33403568_1_aaron-sorkin-newsroom-critic-pans

Amusing Ourselves to Death

In the first chapter of "Amusing Ourselves to Death", the author states the book is going to revolve around the rise of television and the fall of typography. He goes into detail about how this shift in media has and is going to affect everyone in the future. He believes that the rise of technology in the media is going to greatly affect how everyone gets information, processes it, and then uses it. I'm not quite sure if he thinks this is a good thing or not at this point in the book. Postman stated the positives and negatives of both types of media and didn't seem to favor one over the other.
I honestly wasn't extremely intrigued by the first chapter, so hopefully the book will start to pick up from this point. He didn't shock me with any of the claims he made or any of the findings he made regarding the subject. So I hope that the book becomes more interesting as I continue to read it.