Book Description
Well-known for its balanced approach to media industries and professions, Dynamics of Mass Communication offers a lively, thorough, and objective introduction for mass communication majors and nonmajors alike. This new edition embraces the digital age with a free Student DVD that adds video and interactivity to the student's textbook experience and brings students up-to-date on the latest developments in mass communication,--from the emerging role of cell phones and iPods in the mass media mix to the growing impact of blogs on the practice of journalism.
Book Description
Originally 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 media—from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs—it 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 controlof our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding book - must read.......2007-09-27
One of the best books on the danger posed by entertainment to our civic community.
Important read.......2007-09-04
This book asks questions that we need to be asking but aren't. How can we not at least question the media and technology that we take in like oxygen? It's an important read and I recommend it to anyone who isn't apathetic.
The Audio Was Great.......2007-09-03
If you like people like Colin Wilson, you will love this well written and well thought out book. It is like listening to Colin Wilson without the references to literature but the lessons are intact.
Another "Thin" Classic From Postman.......2007-06-22
This is Postman's most famous and widely read book (as is attested by the more than 100 customer reviews here on Amazon) and it is, as other reviewers have suggested, a classic in the Media Studies field. The songwriter Roger Waters was inspired enough to title his album "Amused to Death" after reading Postman's book (although Postman states in one of his later works that he himself would never stoop to listening to the likes of a "Roger Waters").
Instead of giving the usual plot synopsis here as other reviewers have done, I would like instead to perform for you a Media Studies reading of the book. That is to say, instead of reviewing the book's contents, I would like to draw your attention to the medium and format of the book itself, and in doing so, point out what this reveals about Postman as a philosopher.
To begin with the most important point: there are no pictures. Anywhere. And not only is this true of Amusing Ourselves to Death, it is true of every single one of Postman's books. This should alert us to something very important here about Postman: he is iconophobic. He is engaged in a battle against images of any, and every, kind. Not even Marshall McLuhan was so antipathetic to the use of images and illustrations, for his very first book, The Mechanical Bride, is a series of commentaries upon advertisements. In the age old battle of the Word vs. the Image -- a battle which goes way, way back before the twentieth century to the Iconoclastic debates amongst the Greek Byzantines whose iconophobes were in fact influenced by the aniconism of Islam, an entire religion which, like Judaism, had been based upon a rejection of images -- Postman, in this tradition, definitely aligns himself on the side of the Word against the iconophiles, be they Catholics or Hindus or lovers of comic books, or whomever.
Also, you will not find any references to works of art of any kind in this book. Postman apparently has an antipathy to painting and imagery of any kind whatsoever, be it "classical" or electronic. It is important to point this out because it reveals, in the tradition of Harold Innis, Postman's essential "bias" in this book. Indeed, Postman's dialogue with Camille Paglia, published in an old issue of Harper's, underlines this point, for Paglia is as much an iconophile as Postman is an iconoclast. "In the beginning was the Word," Postman quotes, as though to clarify his own personal theology, before proceeding onward with his dialogue with Paglia.
The next thing to notice about the book is its brevity. It is very short, as in fact, are all Mr. Postman's books, for Postman has been quoted as saying that he does not believe in writing long books, and that if one cannot express oneself in two hundred pages or less, then one has no business writing a book. The bibliography, accordingly, is also short, and so apparently Mr. Postman did not feel the need to read many books in order to write this book.
For Postman really only has a single point to make here, and it is an important point which he argues persuasively and eloquently: television is taking over our culture, and all our thought patterns in every aspect or division of our culture is taking its cue from the syncopated, discontinuous and ahistorical "mentality" of television. How this has affected our reading habits, and whether those reading habits still continue, albeit in a changed manner, Postman fails to address. For people have not stopped reading books; instead, they continue to read books, but their expectations of the book have changed. The brevity of Postman's book is itself perhaps an example of what happens to sustained intellectual discourse in the Electronic Age: books get shorter because our attention spans (Postman's included) have shrank. Nobody wants to wade through books on the scale and magnitude of Spengler's Decline of the West or Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit. I notice, furthermore, that the sorts of books which Postman exhibits in his Bibliography are, one and all, short books.
Thus, here is the secret of Postman's book: Postman himself suffers from the very same attention deficit disorder that he castigates others for having suffered at the hands of Electronic Society.
Hmm. One would expect a professor of Media Studies who was as well read and thoughtful as Postman to engage our attention for a while longer. If this book is the greatest thing Postman ever wrote, then we must confess, alas, that Postman's work does not contain a single magnum opus on the level of a Gutenberg Galaxy or an Understanding Media. Perhaps this fact in itself is evidence of a general decline in intellectual and literary ability in our culture during the latter half of the twentieth century.
The reader should not understand that I am saying that there is anything wrong with Amusing Ourselves to Death. But we should learn to understand its limitations in order to appreciate its place in the pantheon of Media Studies classics, upon which list, after all is said and done, Amusing Ourselves to Death places relatively low.
--John David Ebert, author Celluloid Heroes & Mechanical Dragons: Film as the Mythology of Electronic Society
Deserves to be Called a Classic.......2007-06-19
It seems unlikely that a book labeled "Current Affairs" could have a shelf life of more than a few years. It seems preposterous that a book dealing with television and referring to Dallas and Dynasty could have anything to see twenty two years after being published. Yet Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, now in it's "20th Anniversary Edition" continues to be read and studied and to hold influence. Even today it is used as required reading in many high school and college level courses. Though written by a man who made no claim to Christianity, few modern books written by an unbeliever have been more widely read and quoted by Christians. It truly is a remarkable little book.
Postman had that rarely quality of being able to see behind a fad, behind what was late and great. He saw the significance of the rise of the image and the fall of the word, the rise of amusement and the decline of discourse. He saw that television would soon saturate every area of our lives and taint the way we understand politics, religion, education and every other area of importance. As we now transition from a television-based culture to a computer-based culture the image remains central. Perhaps we have already amused ourselves past the point of no easy return. Television is remarkably effective at doing what it does best--entertaining. Postman had no argument with television is a tool of entertainment. In fact, the best things on television are its junk and no one is seriously threatened by this. Where television fails is in attempting to do the more serious work that has traditionally been carried by the written word.
Postman makes it his goal in this book to make the epistemology of television visible, demonstrating that television's way of knowing is hostile to typography's way of knowing, and not only that, but it is inferior to it. "Serious television" is a contradiction in terms for television speaks only in the voice of entertainment, never of serious, weighty, discourse--the kind of discourse that is essential to politics, religion and education. Television's influence has been relentless, transforming our culture so that every area is now considered a venue for entertainment.
Electronic media, led by television but being superseded by the computer, has changed the way we view the world and the way we carry on any kind of public discourse. Gone are the days when content was of overwhelming importance. Instead we deal with sound bites, with discordant images torn from any kind of context, and with style when in former days we relied on substance. Politicians win and lose election campaigns not on the basis of what they say, but on the basis of how they look when they say it.
Throughout the book is an interesting interplay between Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984. In the latter an oppressive regime dominates the world while in the former the people allow themselves to be overcome by levity, by entertainment and by pleasure so that they have no need of an oppressive regime. They were controlled by their amusements. Huxley, Postman argues, had it right. And I would tend to agree.
Amusing Ourselves to Death is a good read, a disturbing read, a thought-provoking read and, dare I say it, a must-read. It deserves its status as a classic and, though already two decades out of date, it is as timely as ever.
Book Description
The original small-press edition of
Calling the Circle has become one of the key resources for the rapidly-growing "circle" movement. This newly revised edition brings Christina Baldwin's groundbreaking work to an even broader audience ranging from women's spirituality groups to corporate development teams.
50,000 years ago, women and men gathered around campfires to decide the key issues in their lives. Today, groups everywhere are discovering a new form of this ancient ritual for communication, mutual support, teamwork, and social change. Now, in a book as consciousness-changing as Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade or Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline, Christina Baldwin offers this powerful new tool to everyone who longs for a community based on honesty, equality, and spiritual integrity.
In this simple, profound practice, participants sit in a circle, pass a talking piece from person to person, and speak and listen from the heart. Christina Baldwin gives detailed instructions and suggestions for getting started, setting goals, and solving disagreements safely and respectfully. She also offers inspiring examples of circles in action: a women's spirituality group, a father and son in crisis, a PTA group that averts a school strike and a work project team that accesses a new level of creativity and caring.
Customer Reviews:
Circles for Business, Home or Community.......2004-12-10
Baldwin's book provides easy to follow guidelines on how to use circle methodology in a variety of settings. You can do some of the pieces or all of the pieces and they apply in multiple settings. I often facilitiate meetings with clients and found Calling the Circle to be one of the most valuable tools I have for taking a group beyond the flip chart and multi-voting.
a book whose time has come.......2003-08-28
This book has been waiting for us to get ready to do something really different-- speak honestly and heartfully and listen compassionately. I've been looking for some way to help elicit the level of conversation that is missing all around us, and calling the circle is an essential tool that needs to come back into the mainstream. Baldwin's book is not the only one out there, but it's a classic, and when you look at her website she's been walking her talk a long time...PeerSpirit is what she calls her circle methodology-- it's highly adaptable. Try this at home. Then try it at work. Then try it in your neighborhood. We will surprise each other with who we really are!
What the world needs now!.......2001-10-16
This is a book for our times. Christina provides a much needed paradigm - a new container within which human interaction can happen in a spirit of respect and tolerance. It is an important answer for anyone who has ever wondered how to be a peace maker in their own lives and in the world. I have used what Christina teaches, and it enhances every interaction all the way from talks with my spouse to large organizational meetings. It is useful at every level of life. It is beautifully written, and it leaves you with highly useful tools in your hand and hope in your heart.
Calling the Circle: The First and Future culture.......2001-10-05
Christina Baldwin's Calling the Circle is a book that offers information critical to our survival as a human community. How do we break through our cultural barriers and relearn how to treat one another with respect and honor the collective wisdom that we so desperately need at this time in our history? Read this book to find a proven methodology, a way of being together that, when practiced allows us to connect on a heart level, to honor and understand one another even though we may disagree. We need this information now more than ever.
Lovely Bookl.......2000-10-04
This was simply a lovely book I recommend it to everyone
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Visual Culture and the German Middle Ages (The New Middle Ages)
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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ASIN: 1403964440
Release Date: 2005-04-28 |
Book Description
This multidisciplinary collection of essays draws on various theoretical approaches to explore the highly visual nature of the Middle Ages and expose new facets of old texts and artifacts. The term "visual culture" has been used in recent years to refer to modern media theory, film, modern art and other contemporary representational forms and functions. But this interest in visuality is not only a modern phenomenon. Discourses on visual processes pervade the works of medieval theologians, scholastics, and secular poets alike. The Middle Ages was a highly visual period in which images, objects, and performance played a dominant communicative and representative role in both secular and religious areas of society. The essays in this volume, which present various perspectives on medieval visual culture, provide a critical historical basis for the study of visuality and visual processes.
Book Description
Marketing in the early 21st century is dominated by two approaches, neither of which is visible to the naked eye: the use of data to define and shape human affairs into machine-readable form and the effort to create and sustain ongoing two-way relationships with customers. The former is one way human life is being subjugated to the regime of the machine; the latter is one way the individual may one day emerge from within the datascape. A post-modern perspective is used to reveal both the "kaleidoroscope" of data and the "raw immaterials" of relationships in two companion essays.
Customer Reviews:
Rebecca Nailed It.......2007-03-18
Rebecca's review is spot-on. I could read this book several times and get something new out of it each time. Ellis succinctly captures the changes in consumer-marketer interaction and the new 21st century value exchange and does a great job of putting it in historical and philosophical context.
Big Thoughts on Marketing .......2007-03-09
Most books on business (particularly those by self-proclaimed "gurus") seize on a single idea. With terrier-like tenacity they explain it, illustrate it, present case studies of it, then explain it yet again, until a readers feels she's entered some sort of textual version of "Groundhog's Day."
"Marketing in the In-Between," takes the opposite approach. It packs so many clusters of thought, ideas, revelations and connections on every page, the reader will need to repeatedly dip in to glean all the thoughts. It challenges readers to truly ponder and to question the basic precepts and practices upon which marketing is based.
Average customer rating:
- God, what a great book, but beware of history nerds!
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The Renaissance Computer: Knowledge Technology in the First Age of Print
Neil Rhodes
Manufacturer: Routledge
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ASIN: 0415220637 |
Book Description
In the fifteenth century the printing press was the 'new technology'. The first ever information revolution began with the advent of the printed book, enabling Renaissance scholars to formulate new ways of organizing and disseminating knowledge. As early as 1500 there were already 20 million books in circulation in Europe. How did this rapid explosion of ideas impact upon the evolution of new disciplines?
The Renaissance Computer looks at the fascinating development of new methods of information storage and retrieval which took place at the very beginning of print culture. It also asks some crucial questions about the intellectual conditions of our own digital age. A dazzling array of leading experts in Renaissance culture explore topics of urgent significance today, including the contribution of knowledge technologies to state formulation and national identity; the effect ofmultimedia, orality and memory on education; the importance of the visual display of information and how search engines reflect and direct ways of thinking.
Customer Reviews:
God, what a great book, but beware of history nerds!.......2000-10-30
This book is a set of essays passing on the lessons of old to a generation who could really gain from an understanding of past and similar events.
Each author gets a chance to illustrate how the contentious events following the invention and deployment of printing technology mirrors the frustration of our current explosion of information. Its scarry how similar things are.
But this isn't simply a bunch of writings by a bunch of history nerds. These guys go way beyond, and its for this insightful vision that the book is worth far more than its asking price.
History has a great way of repeating itself, and its powerful to leverage history's lessons if one wants to lift himself above the fog of the tail chasers.
One author (sorry, I forget who) talks about how reading morphed from a verbal and social activity to one characterised by silence and solitude, and how the computer may allow us back to the social impacts of storytelling. This is notable because we all know how much more is retained when you read aloud and when it becomes a social activity.
But one essay in particular takes the reader into the dialog of 1500 something or other and I gotta be honest, I don't care _that_ much about history. Plus, almost all authors make the mistake of assuming the reader knows who they are talking about.
There's history buffs and there's those who are interested in history from a practical perspective. For the most part this book is for the practical.
Some of the authors could have benefited by realizing the powerful applicability of their work, and thus written it for the Homo-erectus man like me.
But I really enjoyed this book, I read it in just under a week, and I have a two year old and a newborn. There were times when I was wishing there was a way to write the authors to thank them for their good work. Then it occurred to me that I could by writing a review on Amazon.
Average customer rating:
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Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age
Margot Lovejoy
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Digital Creativity: Techniques for Digital Media and the Internet
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Postmodern Currents: Art and Artists in the Age of Electronic Media
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The Computer in the Visual Arts
ASIN: 0415307813 |
Book Description
Digital Currents explores the growing impact of digital technologies on aesthetic experience and examines the major changes taking place in the role of the artist as social communicator. Just as the rise of photographic techniques in the mid 1800s shattered traditional views about representation, so too have contemporary electronic tools catalyzed new perspectives on art, affecting the way artists see, think, and work, and the ways in which their productions are distributed and communicated.
Margot Lovejoy recounts the early histories of electronic media for art making - video, computer, the internet - in the new edition of this richly illustrated book. She provides a context for the works of major artists in each media, describes their projects, and discusses the issues and theoretical implications of each to create a foundation for understanding this developing field.
Digital Currents fills a major gap in our understanding of the relationship between art and technology, and theexciting new cultural conditions we are experiencing.
Average customer rating:
- Current issues, materiality, and related fields
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Reimagining Textuality: Textual Studies in the Late Age of Print
Manufacturer: University of Wisconsin Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0299173844 |
Book Description
Reimagining 'the text' in the electronic age.
What happens when, in the wake of postmodernism, the old enterprise of bibliography, textual criticism, or scholarly editing crosses paths and processes with visual and cultural studies? In Reimagining Textuality, major scholars map out in this volume a new discipline, drawing on and redirecting a host of subfields concerned with the production, distribution, reproduction, consumption, reception, archiving, editing, and sociology of texts.
Customer Reviews:
Current issues, materiality, and related fields.......2007-08-22
What is textuality at the beginning of the 21st century? What does it mean to have a political culture mediated by the Web, where content can be sliced, diced, and recontextualized by and redistributed by hundreds of web sites? Loizeaux and Fraistat offer a series of essays that address these questions from several perspectives. The first section introduces current issues in textual scholarship. The next section grapples with the materiality of the text, in particular the visual component. The third section pursues relations between textual studies and the fields of cultural studies and postcolonial studies.
Book Description
Part fascinating history and part practical manual, this engaging guide takes the position that the Ouija Board is indeed as powerful as its detractors claim, revealing the dark secrets and hidden truths of this curious, enduring "game."
Customer Reviews:
Attention: Planchette Pushers.......2007-09-21
A great book to have in your collection. This is more than A.C. and the Ouija. This small book packs a big punch as it gives out an overview of Spirit communication in Western occultism. It has lots of delicious tidbits about the Ouija board and leaves a trail of landmarks to where more info is stashed in the occult community.
Relatively little-known Crowley divination is illuminated.......2006-12-16
While the title sounds like a mystery novel or a "Made for TV Movie", the book is a dynamic powerhouse of this previously neglected part of Crowley's life. It details not only his personal use of the talking board, but also his willingness to teach responsible people how to use it with great effect and safety.
The book is written by, and largely for ceremonial magicians by Red Flame member, J. Edward Cornelius. While it is helpful for traditions outside of the OTO, it is tailored to be used in that magickal context and it's traditional methods. It is not an exposure of their practices, but rather how to plug that into traditions of the Golden Dawn, OTO, Gnostic Catholic Church, et al..it is not a book for conspiracy theorists!
The books one fault is that it takes a patronizing approach to Wicca and witchcraft throughout its contents. But by letting that go, it does give a very useful approach to using the board for spirit commincation, and makes clear the potential for harm that comes with the board. I highly reccomend it for Crowley fans, divination enthusist, and the witch and magician at large.
The fascinating true history of the ouija board.......2006-01-11
Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board presents the fascinating true history of the ouija board, a device purported to facilitate communication with spirits, back to John Dee, Queen Elizabeth's advisor, who allegedly used it to contact angels and codify the Enochian Alphabet. Of especial interest is the true story of twentieth-century magician Aleister Crowley, who made effective use of the ouija board and even attempted to create and sell a version of the device. An absorbing examination of the history, current usage, and future of a mysterious and mystical device, cherished by some as a magical tool, and condemned by others as a gateway to the devil, and dismissed by skeptics as a hoax.
Destined to be an occult classic.......2005-12-05
It is appropriate that an important contribution to occult literature is to be found in a slim volume with an unassuming and quirky title.
The author presents sufficient theory and practice that will allow even a neophyte to access in a reasonably safe and suprisingly convenient manner the astral realms. Quite an accomplishment. But this is by no means only a book for beginners. Advanced practitioners (assuming they have an open mind) will find a great deal to ponder and benefit from in this volume. Anyone serious about magickal practice or even just magickal theory should acquire this book and consider its contents carefully. They will be well repaid for their efforts.
Aleister Crowley was the baddest of bad boys. He made great advancements in the magickal realm while sending shock waves through the clubby and largely ineffectual grade system of traditional occult fraternities, It is no small irony that the magickal orders that profess to be Thelemic are as full of pretentious poseurs as those that Crowley blasted with his extraordinary talent and application. I suspect that his book will not be well liked by those in authority in Crowleyian magickal orders. The author reveals too many secrets for comfort. I believe Crowley would have approved of this book that captures the spirit of authentic Thelemic magickal theory and practice.
Magickal principles applied to the "talking board"........2005-11-30
If your interest is strictly in the Ouija Board itself, the 1st 2 chapters will give you the history of the Board, the Game and it's media press. But this book is really about applying consistent control in all forms of divination to focus the type of Spirit called. Rather than repeat well worn (and well published) truisms, the author seems to have concentrated on what Aleister Crowley and his disciples actually DID, whether it was thru Tarot, Astrology, Ceremonial Magick or Enochian. The common factor was exerting their Will and concentration to calling forth specific Results. Remakable. 93 / 93 Chuck Furnace
Amazon.com
Douglas Baynton has written a learned history of the varied and sundry attempts that have been made to prevent deaf people from communicating with their hands. Forbidden Signs intelligently explores the cultural aspects of deafness, laying out the naturalness of a gesture-based means of communicating by deaf people, exploring the unique aspects by which meaning can be conveyed without the spoken word. In this context, the pseudo-scientific arguments for preventing the use of sign language which predominated for nearly a century are laid bare as the arbitrary and capricious biases of the hearing world. The rise of a quasi-biological notion of eugenics and genetic determinism as well as the construction of a standard of "normalcy" against which deaf people were measured explains both the means and the rationale for the suppression of sign language. The incredible story of the extensive attempts to isolate deaf people and to break up communities of signers that Douglas Baynton has recorded will likely be difficult to imagine by those who know little of the history of deafness in America. Unfortunately, it is likely a story too familiar to deaf people, even today.
Book Description
Forbidden Signs explores American culture from the mid-nineteenth century to 1920 through the lens of one striking episode: the campaign led by Alexander Graham Bell and other prominent Americans to suppress the use of sign language among deaf people.
The ensuing debate over sign language invoked such fundamental questions as what distinguished Americans from non-Americans, civilized people from "savages," humans from animals, men from women, the natural from the unnatural, and the normal from the abnormal. An advocate of the return to sign language, Baynton found that although the grounds of the debate have shifted, educators still base decisions on many of the same metaphors and images that led to the misguided efforts to eradicate sign language.
"Baynton's brilliant and detailed history, Forbidden Signs, reminds us that debates over the use of dialects or languages are really the linguistic tip of a mostly submerged argument about power, social control, nationalism, who has the right to speak and who has the right to control modes of speech."—Lennard J. Davis, The Nation
"Forbidden Signs is replete with good things."—Hugh Kenner, New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
Let's all stop Dumbing the Deaf Down........2000-10-28
The book was sensitive and beautifully written.
There are many things still forbidden to the deaf in the year 2,000 (disgraceful)! Here are a few more sundry attempts to prevent the deaf from exploring their right to fully communicate or make their language fully credible, valuable and valid. I call it DDD or Dumbing the Deaf Down. 1. The linguists, educators and interpreters all say sign language is a visual language, therefore it cannot have a written form. Even the deaf have bought this myth hook, line and sinker. To prove my point, English is a vocal language. Does that mean English should not have books filled with words? No one should be able to write letters, type, keep documents etc.? How loonie that would be. 2. The experts all say, "Home signs are invalid", there's "no use for them", they are "wrong" and they "arn't accepted" (by the Ph.D. community I guess), etc. Who's language is it anyway? Why shouldn't all signs be documented? Why should some signs die when the old deaf ones pass on? Why shouldn't there be a 2 way sign language dictionary that anyone at any age could access? Have no fear! A team of concerned parents are doing just that. As of this writing there are 9,000 signs in written form, and 3,000 left to finish. 1,800 signs are now in alphanumerical order with 10,200 left to be placed in a 2 way dictionary. If anyone has a problem with this and wishes to debate the issue, I'll be more than happey to oblige. wercozy@wvi.com
Absolutely stunning........2000-10-14
Quite honestly, I expected to be bored out of my wits by this book. The subject matter was interesting, but it started out as Baynton's doctoral dissertation, for goodness' sake! It was going to be a dryly written academic bog.
Wrong. Baynton's style is witty and positively lyrical, a pleasure to read. Indeed, I was surprised at the short time it took me to finish.
This is not to say that the book suffered from a lack of hard content- far from it. If "When the Mind Hears" intrigued you, "Forbidden Signs" will leave you riveted. Baynton reaches startling conclusions which are so logical that, in hindsight, they seem self-evident. Of particular interest was his chapter on gender in the oralist movement- you definitely won't see that one coming!
I hate to seem excessively gushy, but Baynton has produced a marvel. I only hope there's an equally good sequel in the works. :c)
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