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| - | ==Creative Presentation ==
| + | W6yiNJ I really enjoy the blog.Thanks Again. Awesome. |
| - | === Article Title ===
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| - | Postman, N. (1985). The medium is the metaphor. In ''Amusing Ourselves to Death'' (pp. 3-15). New York: Penguin.
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| - | ===Don's Thoughts===
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| - | ===='''Definitions'''====
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| - | according to Federman/McLuhan
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| - | ::Federman, M. (2004, July 23). What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? Retrieved January 23, 2006 from http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm
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| - | ''message''
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| - | :the change of scale or pace or pattern that a new invention or innovation introduces into human affairs.
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| - | ''medium''
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| - | :any extension of ourselves.
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| - | :McLuhan equates medium as a growing medium
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| - | ===='''Article Themes'''====
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| - | *that technology changes culture ... according to Postman ... not for the better
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| - | *that television trivalizes everything ... everything is entertainment
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| - | ===='''Summary'''====
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| - | Postman, in his first chapter of ''Amusing Ourselves to Death'', draws from a variety of philosophers, writers, theorists, and his own and other's observations to make the case for the main argument of this work. He postulates that media, in whatever form - speech, print, imagery, television - changes the content and meaning of messages - what he terms "conversations", because different media "cannot accomodate the same ideas" (p. 8). To illustrate the point Postman allows that smoke signals can be used for simple messages, but they could not be used to express complex ideas. He states "you cannot use smoke to do philosophy. Its form excludes the content" (p. 7).
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| - | Postman uses the term "conversations" to refer "not only to speech but to all techniques and technologies that permit people of a particular culture to exchange messages"(p. 6) and that all culture is comprised of these conversations. Further he draws on media theorist Marshall McLuhan's well known expression "the medium is the message" to states that mediums are distinctive and "provides a new orientation for thought, for express, for sensibility" (p. 10).
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| - | He identifies technology as the main driver of change in culture and that technology has a transformational effect on it. He refers to Plato when describing the effect that writing had on culture - that it "created a new conception of knowledge, as well as a new sense of intelligence, of audience and of posterity" and that "writing makes it possible and convenient to subject thought to a continuous and concentrated scrutiny" (p. 12). Fast forward to the "Age of Television" where all "conservations", according to Postman, are some form of entertainment, where image (perception) is more important than the content. Like the smoke signals of the aboriginals, television "cannot do political philosophy .... Its form works against the content" (p. 7). Television trivializes culture and the "conservations" are "recast in terms that are most suitable to television" (p. 8). Many of the negative trends that can be seen in today's media, for example: the rise of reality television and the break up of celebrities' marriages are reported with the same level of importance as war in the world. On the other hand, there are many television programs that take advantage of the media and much of the "conversations" are of quality and are relevant.
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| - | An important observation that McLuhan made and is echoed by Postman is "that the clearest way to see through a culture is to attend to its tools for conversation" (p. 8). As educators we should be aware of the changes in technology and how they will affect our culture. Postman notes that the introduction of writing brought about a "perceptual revolution: a shift from the ear to the eye as an organ of language processing" (p. 12). Just as Postman describes a cultural shift with the introduction of television with this work, in our time the Internet is playing a similar role and having a similar effect - many of which are yet to be determined.
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| - | ===Karen's Thoughts===
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| - | Karen... you can put your summary here...
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| - | Hey Donald: For what it is worth ….... I like to invent words ... although I am sure that "Hollywoodization" is not a word now, if we use it often enough it will be some day. :)
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| - | The author, Neal Postman, starts off this chapter by expressing his concern about the “Hollywoodization” of the US culture. Everything from politics to sports has an entertainment skew. I believe that he has attributed much of this “skew” to the entertainment side of serious subject to the media of choice in the delivery of the message. He has somewhat based his opinion on observations made by Plato, some 2000 plus years ago, that indicated that our conversations (messages) and the way they are delivered (medium) have a great influence on what we can express. Of course what we can express, or what is convenient to express given the medium, is an important content of culture.
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| - | One example that Postman uses to illustrate his opinion is that of a form of communication by way of smoke signals, used by American Native People. This form of delivery had limitations on the content that could be communicated. To bring that point into the 20th century (the article was written in 1985), Postman uses the media of television and its visual imagery as a form of delivery. There is content that would not work in this form. This brings us back to the “Hollywoodization” of our culture to make the content fit for television as a medium.
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| - | Postman clearly has an issue with the decline of the printed word, which in his opinion is host to more meaningful content, in favour of television which has its content manipulated to fit the visual medium. Further on in his article, Postman, says that the “media of communication available to a culture are a dominant influence on the formation of the culture’s intellect and social preoccupations.” (God help us, the Trailer Park Boys have gone into the making of movies too.)
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| - | The entire article does support Marshall McLuhan’s famous statement; “the medium is the message.” In Postman’s opinion each medium offers a unique way to process the message. The context of the message varies with the medium used. His fear is that the general shift towards electronic media from printed media is what has produced this entertainment skew to the world around us, and the long term effect has a very negative shift in our culture.
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| - | ===Kathie's Thoughts===
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| - | Kathie... you can put your summary here...
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| - | The 1985 Postman reading, “The Medium is the Metaphor” from the book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, attacks our modern ways of communicating. He refers to our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce as being forms of show business. One has only to look at any marketing, sales or public relations text to see that the entertainment factor is ever present in our message.
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| - | The art of the written word is decreasing while the age of television is increasing. A recent study of a small BC town in the Fraser Valley showed,
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| - | Postman also stated that to understand a culture you have to understand its tools for communication.(p. ). This can also be said of generations. How we communicate in our culture and with each other helps us choose the tools of communication.
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| - | He also spoke of the invention of the clock as man conversing with a piece of machinery her created. It is not the concept of God or nature; it is the concept of man is has become a central element in our culture. The invention and evolution of the clock has made us slaves to time. Postman suggests that the clock had us go from timekeepers to timesavers to timeservers.
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| - | Postman suggested that Plato knew that writing would bring about a perceptual revolution. Plato thought that the shift from ear to eye would revolutionize the way we communicate.
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| - | The Canadian guru of media culture, Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase, the medium is the message. Postman agreed with McLuhan’s thinking and took it one step further to say that the medium is the metaphor. New technology introduction in our culture transforms our way of thinking and the content of our culture the medium (or device) is the metaphor.
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| - | Our languages are our media
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| - | Our media are our metaphors
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| - | Our metaphors create the content
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| - | Of our culture
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W6yiNJ I really enjoy the blog.Thanks Again. Awesome.
