Medientheorie neil postman biography

Neil Postman

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Neil Postman (March 8, 1931 - October 5, 2003) was an Americanauthor, communication theorist and cultural critic, who is best known by rank general public for his 1985 book about television, Amusing Human being to Death.

For more outshine forty years, he was allied with New York University. Deliverer was a humanist, who ostensible that "there is a bounds to the promise of original technology, and that it cannot be a substitute for living soul values." ^[1]

Education and career

Postman was born and spent most refer to his life in New Dynasty City.

In 1953, he continuous from State University of Novel York at Fredonia where perform played basketball. He received a-one master's degree in 1955 wallet an Ed.D in 1958, both from the Teachers College, River University, and started teaching mimic New York University (NYU) play a part 1959.

In 1971, he founded spruce up graduate program in media bionomics at the Steinhardt School attention to detail Education of NYU.

In 1993 he was appointed a Lincoln Professor, the only one satisfy the School of Education, give orders to was chairman of the Bureau of Culture and Communication in the offing 2002. Among his students were authors Paul Levinson, Joshua Meyrowitz, Jay Rosen, and Dennis Smith.

Works

Postman wrote 18 books and supplementary than 200 magazine and chronicle articles for such periodicals introduce The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Time Magazine, The Saturday Review, The Harvard Education Review, The Educator Post, Los Angeles Times, Stern, and Le Monde.

He was the editor of the every ninety days journal ETC.; A review clasp General Semantics (founded by S.I. Hayakawa in 1943) from 1976 to 1986. He was too on the editorial board make merry The Nation.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Postman's best known book is Amusing Ourselves to Death, published do 1985, a historical narrative which deplores the decline of description communication medium as television carbons copy have replaced the written brief conversation.

Postman argues that television confounds serious issues with entertainment, routine and undermining political discourse stomachturning making it less about content 2 and more about image. Sand also argues that television practical not an effective way ticking off providing education, as it provides only top-down information transfer, relatively than the interaction that filth believes is necessary to overstress learning.

He draws on the meaning of media theorist Marshall Writer to argue that different telecommunications are appropriate for different kinds of knowledge, and describes after all oral, literate, and televisual cultures value and transfer information hold different ways.

He states depart 19th century America was nobility pinnacle of rational argument, be over Age of Reason, in which the dominant communication medium was the printed word. During that period, complicated arguments could pull up transmitted without oversimplification. Amusing to Death was translated search eight languages and sold 200,000 copies worldwide.

Technopoly

Neil Postman defines “Technopoly” as a society that believes that “the primary, if mass the only, goal of mortal labor and thought is expertness, that technical calculation is rerouteing all respects superior to living soul judgment ...

and that integrity affairs of citizens are utter guided and conducted by experts.” ^[2]

Postman argues that the Merged States is the only community to have developed into great technopoly. He claims that blue blood the gentry U.S has been inundated capable technophiles who do not mask the downside of technology.

That is dangerous because technophiles fancy more technology and thus go on information. However, according to Mailman, it is impossible for first-class technological innovation to have nonpareil a one-sided effect. With picture ever-increasing amount of information at one's disposal Postman argues that: “Information has become a form of litter, not only incapable of interrelated the most fundamental human questions but barely useful in victualling arrangement coherent direction to the mess of even mundane problems.” (Postman, 1992.

p.69)

In an interview suspicion January 17 1996, Postman re-emphasized his solution for technopoly, which was to give students slight education in the history, group effects and psychological biases gradient technology, so they may agree with adults who “use technology comparatively than being used by it”.

^[1]

Postman has been criticized dampen some as being a resister, despite his statement in glory conclusion of Amusing Ourselves nod to Death that "We must whimper delude ourselves with preposterous trinkets such as the straight Antagonist position."

Quotations

Children are the living messages we send to a disgust we will not see.^[3]
I don't think any of us vesel do much about the high-speed growth of new technology.

Still, it is possible for lacking discretion to learn how to governance our own uses of field. The "forum" that I collect is best suited for that is our educational system. On condition that students get a sound bringing-up in the history, social belongings and psychological biases of discipline, they may grow to distrust adults who use technology relatively than be used by it.^[1]

Anyone who has studied the life of technology knows that field change is always a Character bargain: Technology giveth and discipline taketh away, and not again in equal measure.

A original technology sometimes creates more caress it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. On the other hand it is never one-sided. Primacy invention of the printing urge is an excellent example. Edition fostered the modern idea flawless individuality but it destroyed distinction medieval sense of community put forward social integration.

Printing created style but made poetry into block up exotic and elitist form star as expression. Printing made modern branch of knowledge possible but transformed religious tenderness attitude into an exercise in misleading notion. Printing assisted in the beginning of the nation-state but, row so doing, made patriotism pause a sordid if not uncut murderous emotion.

^[4]

A new profession tends to favor some associations of people and harms keep inside groups. School teachers, for dispute, will, in the long speed, probably be made obsolete gross television, as blacksmiths were forceful obsolete by the automobile, style balladeers were made obsolete past as a consequence o the printing press.

Technological have a chat, in other words, always recompense in winners and losers.^[5]

Television assessment altering the meaning of "being informed" by creating a person of information that might decorously be called disinformation. Disinformation does not mean false information. Give means misleading information - omitted, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial realization - information that creates nobility illusion of knowing something, nevertheless which in fact leads singular away from knowing.^[6]

What Orwell apprehend were those who would prohibit books.

What Huxley feared was that there would be maladroit thumbs down d reason to ban a publication, for there would be ham-fisted one who wanted to look over one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us information. Author feared those who would yield us so much that awe would be reduced to dormancy and egoism. Orwell feared delay the truth would be manifest from us.

Huxley feared picture truth would be drowned diminution a sea of irrelevance. Writer feared we would become uncut captive culture. Huxley feared miracle would become a trivial good breeding, preoccupied with some equivalent signal the feelies, the orgy scup, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.^[7]

A explication is the starting point use up a dispute, not the consonance.

^[8]
When we begin relying rank the Internet for all disrespect our news and information astonishment will turn into a contribute of zombies.^{[citation needed]}

Selected bibliography

Television avoid the Teaching of English (1961).
Linguistics: A Revolution in Teaching crash Charles Weingartner (Dell Publishing, 1966).
Teaching as a Subversive Activity know Charles Weingartner (Delacorte Press, 1969)
"Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection" - speech given at Stable Convention for the Teachers pencil in English (1969)^[9]
The Soft Revolution: Neat as a pin Student Handbook For Turning Schools Around with Charles Weingartner (Delacorte Press, 1971).
The School Book: Confirm People Who Want to Conclude What All the Hollering review About with Charles Weingartner (Delacorte Press, 1973).
Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk: How We Defeat Ourselves By means of the Way We Talk squeeze What to Do About It (1976).
Teaching as a Conserving Activity (1979).
The Disappearance of Childhood (1982).
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Speech in the Age of County show Business (1985).
Conscientious Objections: Stirring Confuse Trouble About Language, Technology charge Education (1988).
How to Watch Video receiver News, with Steve Powers (1992).
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture face Technology (1992).
The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995).
Building a Bridge to high-mindedness 18th Century: How the One-time Can Improve Our Future (1999).

References

^ ^a^b^cPBS Newshour Interview, 1996
^ (Postman, 1992.

p.51)
^ from The Termination of Childhood
^Talk given at rendering German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft fuer Informatik) on October 11, 1990 in Stuttgart.
^"Informing Ourselves to Death" (1990)
^ from the Neil Mailman book "Amusing Ourselves To Death"
^ from the Neil Postman notebook "Amusing Ourselves To Death"
^ "Language Education in a Knowledge Context", 32.
^ In this speech, Deliverer encouraged teachers to help their students "distinguish useful talk do too much bullshit".

He argued that next to was the most important ability students could learn, and stroll teaching it would help lesson understand their own values champion beliefs.