Bøger af Neil Postman

What happens when media and politics become forms of entertainment? As our world begins to look more and more like Orwell's 1984, Neil's Postman's essential guide to the modern media is more relevant than ever."e;It's unlikely that Trump has ever readAmusing Ourselves to Death, but his ascent would not have surprised Postman.' -CNNOriginally published in 1985, Neil Postman's groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic mediafrom the Internet to cell phones to DVDsit has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.';A brilliant, powerful, and important book. This is an indictment that Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one.' Jonathan Yardley,The Washington Post Book World

Hvad sker der, når medier og politik bliver former for underholdning?I takt med at vores verden begynder at ligne Orwells 1984 mere og mere, er Neil Postmans vigtige analyse af de moderne medier mere relevant end nogensinde.“Den mest ætsende, nøjagtige og svimlende profetiske bog om, hvordan medieudviklingen er ved at blæse vores hjerner ud og underminere betingelserne for ikke bare et sammenhængende selv, men også et sammenhængende samfund.” – Lea Korsgaard, fra det danske forord til bogenNeil Postmans banebrydende polemik om fjernsynets ødelæggende effekt på vores politik og offentlige diskurs blev oprindeligt udgivet i 1985 og er blevet hyldet som en bog fra det 21. århundrede udgivet i det 20. århundrede. Nu, hvor fjernsynet har fået følgeskab af mere sofistikerede elektroniske medier – fra internettet til mobiltelefoner – har den fået endnu større betydning. Vi morer os ihjel er et profetisk blik på, hvad der sker, når politik, journalistik, uddannelse og endda religion bliver underlagt underholdningens krav. Neil Postman (1931-2003) var professor i kommunikation på New York University og grundlægger af dets medieøkologiprogram. Han skrev mere end 20 bøger.“Det er usandsynligt, at Trump nogensinde har læst Amusing Ourselves to Death, men hans opstigning ville ikke have overrasket Postman.” – CNN

In this witty, often terrifying work of cultural criticism, the author of Amusing Ourselves to Death chronicles our transformation into a Technopoly: a society that no longer merely uses technology as a support system but instead is shaped by it-with radical consequences for the meanings of politics, art, education, intelligence, and truth.

Neil Postman, con Huxley, se pregunta "de qué nos reímos y por qué hemos dejado de pensar", y dirige sus respuestas a la televisión y a su modo entretenido de presentar, que ha transformado drásticamente la política, la educación, el periodismo, la ciencia y la religión. Recordando la frase del actor presidente norteamericano Ronald Reagan (La política es igual que el show business), Postman se lamenta de la muerte de la palabra impresa, con pasión de profesor y melancolía de sabio historiador.El principal error de la cultura del entretenimiento, según Postman, consiste en el hecho de que produce vastas cantidades de información sin ofrecer ningún contexto para la comprensión, lo que provoca la inutilidad de dicha información (...). La televisión comercial obliga a los espectadores a tener una conciencia fracturada, con su omnipresente "y ahora... Esto", cuando pasa a su tarea de vender. Timothy Erwin, Michigan Quarterly ReviewNeil Postman dibuja una sociedad que camina, aceleradamente, hacia la estupidez colectiva, en un marco de libertades formales inútiles porque nadie las podrá ejercer, por desconocimiento, en un mundo universal donde cuatro grandes comunicadores -viejos actores, deportistas famosos, presentadores con glamur- serán los Grandes Escritores omnipotentes y omnipresentes.Josep Bargalló, AvuiCon prosa fácil y ejemplos sencillos y brillantes, Neil Postman acaba por provocar la inquietud en el lector, conduciendo sus reflexiones a datos tan significativos como el fenómeno de la existencia de una cantidad de información tal que, reforzada por el tratamiento de flash de la radio o la televisión, acaba provocando un auténtico descontrol en el ciudadano.Carles Geli, El Periódico de Catalunya

A scathing and prescient look at television news?now updated for the new tech-savvy generation Television news : genuine information or entertainment fodder? Fifteen years ago, Neil Postman, a pioneer in media education and author of the bestselling Amusing Ourselves to Death, and Steve Powers, an award-winning broadcast journalist, concluded that anyone who relies exclusively on their television for accurate world news is making a big mistake. A cash cow laden with money from advertisers, so-called news shows glut viewers with celebrity coverage at the cost of things they really should know. Today, this message is still appallingly true but the problems have multiplied? along with the power of the Internet and the abundance of cable channels. A must-read for anyone concerned with the way media is manipulating our worldview, this newly revised edition addresses the evolving technology and devolving quality of America?s television news programming.

In a series of feisty and ultimately hopeful essays, one of America's sharpest social critics casts a shrewd eye over contemporary culture to reveal the worst -- and the best -- of our habits of discourse, tendencies in education, and obsessions with technological novelty. Readers will find themselves rethinking many of their bedrock assumptions: Should education transmit culture or defend us against it? Is technological innovation progress or a peculiarly American addiction? When everyone watches the same television programs -- and television producers don't discriminate between the audiences for Sesame Street and Dynasty -- is childhood anything more than a sentimental concept? Writing in the traditions of Orwell and H.L. Mencken, Neil Postman sends shock waves of wit and critical intelligence through the cultural wasteland.

A no-holds-barred assault on outdated teaching methods-with dramatic and practical proposals on how education can be made relevant to today's world.Praise for Teaching As a Subversive Activity"A healthy dose of Postman and Weingartner is a good thing: if they make even a dent in the pious . . . American classroom, the book will be worthwhile."-New York Times Book Review "Teaching and knowledge are subversive in that they necessarily substitute awareness for guesswork, and knowledge for experience. Experience is no use in the world of Apollo 8. It is simply necessary to know. However, it is also necessary to know the effect of Apollo 8 in creating a new Global Theatre in which student and teacher alike are looking for roles. Postman and Weingartner make excellent theatrical producers in the new Global Theatre."-Marshall McLuhan "It will take courage to read this book . . . but those who are asking honest questions-what's wrong with the worlds in which we live, how do we build communication bridges cross the Generation Gap, what do they want from us?-these people will squirm in the discovery that the answers are really within themselves."-Saturday Review "Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner go beyond the now-familiar indictments of American education to propose basic ways of liberating both teachers and students from becoming personnel rather than people . . . the authors have created what may become a primer of 'the new education' Their book is intended for anyone, teacher or not, who is concerned with sanity and survival in a world of precipitously rapid change, and it's worth your reading."-Playboy "This challenging, liberating book can unlock not only teachers but anyone for whom language and learning are not dead."-Nat Hentoff