SOC377 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Deal With The Devil, Msnbc, The Roots
23 Dec 2016
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Three ways television erodes childhood: no instruction to grasp its form. Don"t have to sit down and explain the grammar, they can understand it themselves after watching (unlike reading: makes no complex demands on the mind or on behavior. Can be multitasking while watching tv: it does not segregate its audience. Roughly the same understanding (at least the basic plot) Television is ephemeral (doesn"t structure to sustain complicated discourses, image is constantly changing) Television opens secrets but has no way of limiting its audience. You have to reach a certain level of reading skill to understand adult books. You can just watch tv, you never get better or worst at it. Postman gives the example of the novel: the tropic of cancer. The novel is noted for its candid sexuality. Postman notes that even though he got a hold of the novel he lacked the frame of reference to understand.
