Average customer rating:
- Loved this book
- Aim for the Heart is a first-rate "How-To " for TV journalists
- Probably THE book to read for any up-and-coming reporter...
- Great teaching tool
- Need more people to read books like this
|
Aim for the Heart
Al Tompkins
Manufacturer: Bonus Books
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Make it Memorable
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Thirty Seconds to Air
ASIN: 1566251761 |
Book Description
The goal of this book is to help professional broadcast reporters, producers, and photojournalists tell stronger stories. It can serve as a guide for news managers whose job it is to train, coach, and inspire others. Veteran journalist Al Tompkins is Broadcast and Online Group Leader for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
Customer Reviews:
Loved this book.......2006-05-18
I've worked as a tv reporter for nearly 21 years...16 years in Portland, Oregon. This is by far one of the very best books I've read on the art of writing for tv news. I found it useful after reading the very first page. Tompkins uses clear, concrete examples to illustrate his points which instantly made me a better writer. Its refreshing to think about our craft with new insight on the purpose and focus of each story. I've urged all the producers and reporters in our newsroom to get and read this!
Aim for the Heart is a first-rate "How-To " for TV journalists.......2005-08-12
Al Tompkins scores with a practical guide to make pictures and words compelling, even for a novice TV reporter.
Probably THE book to read for any up-and-coming reporter..........2005-03-11
Mr. Tompkins' book was the reason I got my first job coming out of college. The first two stories I put on my resume tape were heavily influenced by the things I read in 'Write for the ear, shoot for the eye, aim for the heart.'
Al explains things so that you not only understand how to do the things we do, but also why we do the things we do. I still keep the book on my desk, and whenever my reporting gets into a rut, I haul out Al's book and re-read it. My next few stories are always better than my last few stories.
Great teaching tool.......2004-07-14
I purchased this book to help teach high school students how to write for broadcast, and the lessons Tompkins gives are valuable for students and professionals. Tompkins shows the process behind the writing and the factors a reporter should consider, such as when less writing is more. The book is funny, entertaining, and touching at the same time. He gives many specific examples, including exerpts from scripts, that show the detail and the planning behind the writing. It changes the viewer's perspective on the television news, and it certainly could help professionals refine their writing for broadcast.
Need more people to read books like this.......2004-04-23
Al Tompkins just gave a great presentation at RTNDA on how to find information on the internet. The seminar was filled with humor, insight, and just plain useful information. This book has a similar feel, like advice from someone who wants you to succeed. If a lot of young people read this book (along with some older journalists), perhaps journalism won't be in quite the spot it finds itself in.
Average customer rating:
- A Great Start
- Very Good
- great book!!
- Superlative
- Bad Copies
|
Video Basics
Herbert Zettl
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Accessories:
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VideoLab 3.0, Revised
ASIN: 0495050326 |
Book Description
Herbert Zettl draws on his expertise and field experience to bring you the new edition of VIDEO BASICS, the handiest and most authoritative, current, and technically accurate student guide to video production. Meeting the need for a briefer book, this text distills comprehensive video instruction so that it can be covered in a single semester. The book moves students from video concepts and processes to production tools and techniques, and finally, to the production environment (studio and field, inside and outside) and its effects. A more conceptual framework leads the student from the idea (what to create) to the image (how to create) on video.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Start.......2006-03-02
This book is a must for anyone getting into video production. Full of basic information that is conveyed in an intuitive and concise way, plus there is plenty of advanced knowledge to keep you referring back for years to come. Definitely a staple for all video people.
Very Good.......2004-01-24
My boss told me to buy this book, and it is one of the best available book.
great book!!.......2002-08-09
i am an electronic media communications major and this book has been used for a number of years in my school's communications program. video basics 3 has everything you need to know and everything is explained in much detail, yet not too complicated. there are great illustrations throughout the book that are very helpful as well.
i bought this book used from my campus bookstore and i gotta wonder, why would someone return this book at the end of the semester? i still have mine and have re-read it through quite a few times, most definately something worth holding on to!
Superlative.......2002-04-24
This book gives a broad overview of the field of video. It is intended as a textbook for students in a university video course, however, the information that it contains will be valuable for anyone interested in improving their video skills, especially in professional contexts. Since the book is a textbook, each chapter begins with a list of key terms and definitions, and key concepts are highlighted in the text and repeated at the end of the chapter. Each chapter also contains instructions for a lesson in Zettl's Video Lab on CD (not included). The book covers many topics related to professional video production, including the video production process, the video team, video cameras, lighting, sound, editing, and the studio. I found the language to be very straightforward and highly informative.
Bad Copies.......2002-01-30
My copy of the book did not have chapters 3 and 4. I had a chapters 1 and 2 repeated. Check your copy of the book.
Book Description
ONLY CONNECT is a comprehensive history of American broadcasting from its earliest days in radio, through the rise of television, to the current era of digital media and the Internet. It presents broadcasting as a vital component of American cultural identity, placing the development of U.S. radio, television, and new media in the context of social and cultural change. Each chapter opens with a discussion of the historical period, thoroughly traces the development of media policy, the growth of media industries, and the history of U.S. broadcast programming, and closes with a look at the major ways that radio and television have been understood and discussed throughout American history.
Customer Reviews:
Fast shipment!.......2005-10-05
I was impressed with the timely response to my order. The book arrived to my house in record time. It was slightly used but it served it's purpose.
Average customer rating:
- Broadcasting, Cable, the Internet & Beyond
|
Broadcasting, Cable, the Internet and Beyond: An Introduction to Modern Electronic Media
Joseph R Dominick
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0072493836 |
Book Description
This text surveys the field of modern electronic media and beyond. Beyond, more than a word in the title, refers to the new technologies, regulations, programming, and competition that affect our world and the broadcasting industry. The authors of Broadcasting, Cable, the Internet and Beyond have three main goals for every edition: 1) to convey the excitement of the industry, 2) to provide a survey of the industry, and 3) presenting a readable text that makes even the most difficult information understandable. With new information and innovations added to an already strong foundation, this edition achieves each of these goals, again.
Customer Reviews:
Broadcasting, Cable, the Internet & Beyond.......2000-06-23
This book has been used broadly in American Universities from the first Edition. This book provides a lot of infomarion about history, procedure, and broadcating technology itself in the United States. Currently, the area of broadcasting has been broaden into Internet. Web-casting is one of new types of broadcasting internationally. This 4th edition includes this new shapes of broadcasting on the Web. I hope this edition gives more insights of American broadcasting systems.
Average customer rating:
- Lack of demodulation techniques
|
Single- and Multi-carrier Quadrature Amplitude Modulation : Principles and Applications for Personal Communications, WLANs and Broadcasting
Lajos Hanzo ,
William Webb ,
Thomas Keller ,
L. Hanzo ,
W.T. Webb , and
T. Keller
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0471492396 |
Book Description
Single- and Multi-carrier Quadrature Amplitude Modulation Principles and Applications for Personal Communications, WLANs and Broadcasting L. Hanzo Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK W. Webb Motorola, Arlington Heights, USA formerly at Multiple Access Communications Ltd, Southampton, UK T. Keller Ubinetics, Cambridge Technology Centre, Melbourn, UK formerly at Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK Motivated by the rapid evolution of wireless communication systems, this expanded second edition provides an overview of most major single- and multi-carrier Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) techniques commencing with simple QAM schemes for the uninitiated through to complex, rapidly-evolving areas, such as arrangements for wide-band mobile channels. Targeted at the more advanced reader, the multi-carrier modulation based second half of the book presents a research-orientated outlook using a variety of novel QAM-based arrangements.
* Features six new chapters dealing with the complexities of multi-carrier modulation which has found applications ranging from Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) to Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB)
* Provides a rudimentary introduction for readers requiring a background in the field of modulation and radio wave propagation
* Discusses classic QAM transmission issues relevant to Gaussian channels
* Examines QAM-based transmissions over mobile radio channels
* Incorporates QAM-related orthogonal techniques, considers the spectral efficiency of QAM in cellular frequency re-use structures and presents a QAM-based speech communications system design study
* Introduces Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) over both Gaussian and wideband fading channels
By providing an all-encompassing self-contained treatment of single- and multi- carrier QAM based communications, a wide range of readers including senior undergraduate and postgraduate students, practising engineers and researchers alike will all find the coverage of this book attractive.
Customer Reviews:
Lack of demodulation techniques.......2000-10-07
Unfortunately book doesn't have detailed information about demodulation process. Reader has to look for them in other places. :-((
Book Description
Important Updates!
This third edition has been reorganized and updated throughout. It encompasses new standards and identifies and explains emerging digital technologies currently revolutionizing the industry. Additions include:
Broadcast Basics first principles for those who really are starting from scratch
ATSC PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol) and Data Broadcasting
More information on ATSC digital television standards and implementation
Current TV studio operations HD and SD systems, video servers, non-linear editing, electronic news rooms, closed captioning, and compressed bitstreams
Station and network arrangements, centralcasting, and multicasting
IBOC digital HD radio and methods for implementation
Current radio studio operations digital audio workstations, program automation, and voice tracking
and much more!
* Learn from industry expert Graham Jones of the National Association of Broadcasters--the most trusted name in broadcast
* Covers television and radio, analog and digital
* Packed with jargon-busters
Customer Reviews:
From one who teaches Broadcast Engineering..........2006-06-08
I teach Radio/Television Broadcasting (along with being Director of Engineering, CMAT) at a State University. I read this book and many others trying to find the perfect book to use in the B'cast Engineering courses I teach here. This book is by far the best I've ever seen for the beginner to novice Engineer. I started my B'cast career in 1978 -- I wish this book would have been around then, or even during my first 5 years!!! It's written in simple terms making it easy to understand, yet completely covers the subject to the most technical aspects. If you're majoring in Communications and have an eye on the technical side, GET THIS BOOK!
Gregory
Book Description
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a method of digital modulation in which a signal is split into several narrowband channels at different frequencies.
CDMA is a form of multiplexing, which allows numerous signals to occupy a single transmission channel, optimising the use of available bandwidth. Multiplexing is sending multiple signals or streams of information on a carrier at the same time in the form of a single, complex signal and then recovering the separate signals at the receiving end.
Multi-Carrier (MC) CDMA is a combined technique of Direct Sequence (DS) CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and OFDM techniques. It applies spreading sequences in the frequency domain.
Wireless communications has witnessed a tremendous growth during the past decade and further spectacular enabling technology advances are expected in an effort to render ubiquitous wireless connectivity a reality.
This technical in-depth book is unique in its detailed exposure of OFDM, MIMO-OFDM and MC-CDMA. A further attraction of the joint treatment of these topics is that it allows the reader to view their design trade-offs in a comparative context.
Divided into three main parts:
Part I provides a detailed exposure of OFDM designed for employment in various applications
Part II is another design alternative applicable in the context of OFDM systems where the channel quality fluctuations observed are averaged out with the aid of frequency-domain spreading codes, which leads to the concept of MC-CDMA
Part III discusses how to employ multiple antennas at the base station for the sake of supporting multiple users in the uplink
- Portrays the entire body of knowledge currently available on OFDM
- Provides the first complete treatment of OFDM, MIMO(Multiple Input Multiple Output)-OFDM and MC-CDMA
- Considers the benefits of channel coding and space time coding in the context of various application examples and features numerous complete system design examples
- Converts the lessons of Shannon’s information theory into design principles applicable to practical wireless systems
- Combines the benefits of a textbook with a research monograph where the depth of discussions progressively increase throughout the book
This all-encompassing self-contained treatment will appeal to researchers, postgraduate students and academics, practising research and development engineers working for wireless communications and computer networking companies and senior undergraduate students and technical managers.
Download Description
"Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a method of digital modulation in which a signal is split into several narrowband channels at different frequencies.
CDMA is a form of multiplexing, which allows numerous signals to occupy a single transmission channel, optimising the use of available bandwidth. Multiplexing is sending multiple signals or streams of information on a carrier at the same time in the form of a single, complex signal and then recovering the separate signals at the receiving end.
Multi-Carrier (MC) CDMA is a combined technique of Direct Sequence (DS) CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and OFDM techniques. It applies spreading sequences in the frequency domain.
Wireless communications has witnessed a tremendous growth during the past decade and further spectacular enabling technology advances are expected in an effort to render ubiquitous wireless connectivity a reality.
This technical in-depth book is unique in its detailed exposure of OFDM, MIMO-OFDM and MC-CDMA. A further attraction of the joint treatment of these topics is that it allows the reader to view their design trade-offs in a comparative context.
Divided into three main parts:
Part I provides a detailed exposure of OFDM designed for employment in various applications
Part II is another design alternative applicable in the context of OFDM systems where the channel quality fluctuations observed are averaged out with the aid of frequency-domain spreading codes, which leads to the concept of MC-CDMA
Part III discusses how to employ multiple antennas at the base station for the sake of supporting multiple users in the uplink
- Portrays the entire body of knowledge currently available on OFDM
- Provides the first complete treatment of OFDM, MIMO(Multiple Input Multiple Output)-OFDM and MC-CDMA
- Considers the benefits of channel coding and space time coding in the context of various application examples and features numerous complete system design examples
- Converts the lessons of Shannon’s information theory into design principles applicable to practical wireless systems
- Combines the benefits of a textbook with a research monograph where the depth of discussions progressively increase throughout the book
This all-encompassing self-contained treatment will appeal to researchers, postgraduate students and academics, practising research and development engineers working for wireless communications and computer networking companies and senior undergraduate students and technical managers. "
Customer Reviews:
A bible for OFDM/MC-CDMA and Multiuser Detection.......2006-02-10
This is an excellent reference for studying OFDM, MC-CDMA and multiuser detection techniques with detailed explanations and analyses.
Most Informative Textbook on The OFDM Systems!!!!!.......2004-08-13
Dr. Hanzo is one of greatest experts in the wireless communications. He wrote many technical papers and textbooks in this field. This OFDM textbook provides an excellent overview for wireless communication scholars and engineers. In every aspect of OFDM research, the authors always have illustrative introduction.
This book is excellent for university professors and graduate students to explore the state-of-the-art OFDM technology.
Average customer rating:
|
Broadcast Announcing Worktext: Performing for Radio, Television, and Cable
David Reese ,
Mary Beadle , and
Alan Stephenson
Manufacturer: Focal Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0240803566 |
Book Description
Broadcast Performance Worktext provides the aspiring broadcast performer with the skills, techniques, and procedures necessary to enter this highly competitive field. In addition to the principles of good performance, this text addresses the importance of "audience" and how messages change to communicate effectively to various groups. Television and radio studio environments, announcer specializations and responsibilities, and developing a broadcast delivery style are just a few of the many topics covered.
Factual information is presented in brief, easy-to-digest modules and is enhanced with self-study questions and projects that encourage active reader participation. The self-study provides an immediate check on the comprehension of what was presented, and the projects allow for a practical application of key concepts in the material. The worktext format, with many real-life examples, combines both traditional textbook learning and practical experience. A companion CD-ROM illustrates techniques and concepts in each chapter with audio and visual examples.
Students will look to this text not just as a reading assignment, but as an aide in learning the techniques of announcing. For professionals in the industry who are seeking change or advancement, this book will serve as a valuable tool for enhancing their knowledge and understanding of the craft.
Well designed format is easyily accessible to students, instructors and professionals
Includes self-study questions and projects to help test yourself on the skills as they are taught
Companion CD demonstrates various radio and tv announcing techniques
Customer Reviews:
An informative read..........2006-01-18
Reading this book and working through the cd won't exactly make you a broadcasting star, but it definitely guides you at the required talents and qualifications for conforming to industry standards.
The cd-rom consists of video and audio segments or snippets as they are quite short on the average; it includes voice commentaries, installation videos, teleprompters, and practice media for you to develop your skills.
The book is and entertaining read with chapters on the history of broadcasting, the various types of broadcasting( radio dj, television, cable etc), the great broacasters, interviews, the biology of the human voice mechanism, techniques and the like.
Overall this book is definitely helpful in guiding towards the broadcasting industry and could be useful for students of mass communication and media studies.
Average customer rating:
- Worth the money if you want to learn EVERYTHING about DBS
- A good reference describing Direct Broadcast Satellite
|
Direct Broadcast Satellite Communications: MPEG Enabled Service
Donald C. Mead
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0201695820 |
Customer Reviews:
Worth the money if you want to learn EVERYTHING about DBS.......2007-05-05
This is not the cheapest book you'll find on DBS satellite technology, but I have found no other books to date that go to the depths of detail that this one does, especially on MPEG2 encoding for satellite broadcast. Mr. Mead was there at the beginnings of DirecTV in 1990, and his years of experience show through in the vast amount of technical detail included in this book. From the discussions on modern satellite RF design, to error-correction schemes and conditional access encryption of transmissions, through the uplink facilities designs and subscriber decoding equipment, it's ALL THERE! Even the last two chapters of the book are devoted to "future" DBS technologies like MPEG4 and Global Broadcast Service.
This book will be on my reference shelf for some time to come!
A good reference describing Direct Broadcast Satellite.......2000-04-27
For those who want to understand the main principles of the satellite communications system construction. The author provides a comprehensive explanation of error correction, MPEG compression and even RF issues important in a context of the modern DBS system. The book is very easy to read and is NOT intended for the developers!
Book Description
A total departure from previous writing about television, this book is the first ever to advocate that the medium is not reformable. Its problems are inherent in the technology itself and are so dangerous -- to personal health and sanity, to the environment, and to democratic processes -- that TV ought to be eliminated forever.
Weaving personal experiences through meticulous research, the author ranges widely over aspects of television that have rarely been examined and never before joined together, allowing an entirely new, frightening image to emerge. The idea that all technologies are "neutral," benign instruments that can be used well or badly, is thrown open to profound doubt. Speaking of TV reform is, in the words of the author, "as absurd as speaking of the reform of a technology such as guns."
Customer Reviews:
Interesting, but far less satisfying than I expected.......2007-06-04
Well, I seem to be one of that rare species of person who didn't feel passionately one way or another about this book.
On the "pro" side, I agree (mostly) with his main premise: the impact of television on society and individuals is mostly negative -- and in particular, I don't see any benefit to television commercials at all. It's great to have a book out there that raises awareness of this. Fact is, our psychology is built in such a way that we are not "good" at television in the same way we are "good" at the natural world. For instance, it is TRUE that we have a natural bias that seeing is believing, and intellectual knowledge of what is true and false can get you only so far in overcoming that (as decades of work in cognitive science, much of it done since this book was published, will attest). Mander does a good job of highlighting many of the affects of television on the psyche and society (and why). I also really appreciated his perspective as former public relations and advertising executive. Plus, he raised a few interesting points that I had never thought of: for instance, the way that editing many rapid cuts can forcibly engage our attention, even if we don't "want" to be watching.
So I'm not sorry I read it. But I was disappointed by several other things, some attributable no doubt to the fact that it was written in 1977, some not so much. First of all, I found some of the science to be flimsy at best (I study cognitive science for a living). For instance, the entire section about natural light and television was frankly bizarre. It was most frustrating because I worried that these areas of quackery would turn off a reader who recognized them as such but wasn't familiar enough with psychology and cognitive science to recognize that the other 80% of it WAS pretty well supported (especially after decades of further research that Mander couldn't have known about). I can see from some people's comments here that it has done so, and I'm sorry for that.
Secondly, many of his points just aren't relevant now that television technology has changed so much. For instance, he talks a lot about how television is biased to show certain things (inanimate objects) and not show other things (faces) due to limitations caused by resolution and television set size. Some of this is still true -- I think war and soundbites will always be inherently favored over peace and long thoughtful monologues -- but some of it is not: e.g., with the advent of plasma TVs, resolution isn't an issue. And with people's increasing ability to be actively involved in television content (via TiVo, capturing the media and mixing it up themselves, etc), much of the nature of our interaction has changed.
Mander can't be faulted for not knowing about these things thirty years ago, but it does make me wish for a more current version of this book. As it is, the book is definitely worth reading: but you should keep in mind that it's dated and that not all of his scientific claims are very well supported.
Every Parent Should Read This Book.......2007-01-20
I read this book in high school and it changed my life. While I have not eliminated television in my home, we rarely watch it. Instead we choose to interact with each other or engage in other activities.
While Mander's arguments may seem over the top, it makes sense to question an object that consumes so much of our lives. To "plop the kids in front of the TV" with little thought as to the effects is quite foolish. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics agrees, and is against any television viewing for very young children.
I dropped the book after 30 min or reading.......2006-10-20
Jerry Mander has issues. Yes he did a lot of research but in the end he is on a holy crusade that is as one sided and closed minded as was the holy crusades. He treats the TV as an evil creation. Without TV as a device of information and entertainment transference, our society would be knocked back 30 years or so. TV does have its downsides but its all up to the parents to control its use. Apparently this book is a direct reflection of Jeff Mander's irresponsibility as a parent to control the raising of children and now tries to blame this incompetence on the TV rather then himself.
He brings up some detailed and convincing results but again he just redirecting blame.
To take the TV out of someone's life is a poor route and will cause problems for people, especially children in as society in the future. The transfer of information and demands on society for the transference of education, news, and others and the ability of a person to analyze and utilize the information will determine their success. It also will greatly hamper their ability to socialize.
People that say it works for them and the children and they are successful. Take a look at their financial standings. Chances are they are quite wealthy and the reason they have a " good life" is that they buy their way through life.
So when you reread the book, keep your mind open and keep in the back of your mind the financial standing of the person who wrote it. Its easy for him to say what he wants because he has the money to go do and BUY what ever he wants.
Overall the book has some good points but I would not recommend it to anyone to waist the money on the cost.
Save your money and use common sense. TV is a good thing, as long as the parents control it and encourage other activities. Its not that TV is bad.. its that the Parents are irresponsible. Face it Jeff, you sucked as a parent model... stop blaming TV.
Delenda est TV.......2006-08-09
This book is a revolutionary manifesto, a call to arms against the modern-day Moloch, that pernicious idol television. Read it at your own peril- if you're content facing life in a somnambulistic stupor, this book is a bucket of cold water in the face. TV=living death.
Mander makes it clear that he's not calling for people to reduce their TV watching or for the networks to "reform" themselves by adding more "educational" programming. The technology itself is irredeemable and must be eliminated. Nothing less it at stake, he asserts, than human autonomy and the democratic system. The book is full of seemingly overblown statements like that, but Mander's arguments, coupled with a lifetime of personal observation of television's effects, lend credence to even the most ostensibly hyperbolized polemics.
Employing both logical argument and frequent reference to scientific studies, Mander lays out his case for the condemnation of TV. He points out how sitting in a darkened room staring at an object is the ultimate in sensory deprivation, a state which makes the mind malleable and suggestible, and in which the subconscious will accord extraordinary authority and importance to the loudest and most forceful voice ("Buy Now!" "Tune in tomorrow!"), which is the very definition of hypnosis. TV is hypnotizing us. It separates us from humanity's natural means of understanding the world- direct experience. It is a pale and pathetic substitute for life itself. Our real-life knowledge of the world is being replaced by the knowledge and values that advertising executives want us to have- namely, brand identification and consumerism. The couch potato justifies his addiction by saying that TV-watching enables him to empty his mind and not think after a long hard day's work. Indeed, his mind is being emptied, but it is also being re-filled with images and desires of someone else's choosing. It is designed to plant ideas into the subconsciousness, so that people buy things they don't need and never knew they wanted, in order to perpetuate a never-ending cycle of consumerism. TV is an instrument designed to dominate other people's minds, a dangerous enough tool in the hands of advertising executives, but when used by authoritarian-minded political manipulators-which it is- it is a deadly weapon. In short, TV has created a nation of barely sentient, obedient zombies- the perfect market for the advertising industry and the perfect citizenry for the political class.
Ok, the book has faults, which some reviewers noted, more or less fairly- to be sure, some parts of the book are somewhat dated. The milieu in which it was written was the 1970s. References to the ERA, Vietnam, and anti-nuke rallies will jolt the modern reader. Also, Mander wrote in the era before cable TV, so obviously the book doesn't deal with the additional dynamic that creates. And surely there have been additional studies and books in the subsequent years that would be of value to the subject. Additionally, though Mander is correct that the human brain was created (or evolved, if you prefer) to function in a natural environment by gaining knowledge through hands-on experience, and the implications of that are certainly worth thinking about, his "noble savage" encomium may go too far; unless we're willing to go back to a pre-literate society in which we'd live in caves, we're going to have to deal with some level of artificiality and mediation of experience (e.g. books). And yes, the 4 Arguments aren't exactly organized as coherently as expected and would probably better be termed "1500 Arguments". Nevertheless, these are relatively minor objections- this is a brilliant book that will, above all, make_you_think_.
Unfortunately, the book is only likely to be read by those who have already thrown off the shackles of the toxic hypno-box, or who are close to doing so. In any case, it's an important manifesto whose message must be promulgated by one enlightened individual to another until the day when television's poisonous influence is finally eradicated from the world.
Why there is a mix of good and bad reviews.......2005-10-03
I'm in the camp with the good reviews, but I think I understand some of those who say "his arguments are ridiculous." I always took this book as part satire and black comedy. For example, he interviews a researcher at Stanford who says something like, "Televison beams photons at 20,000 electron volts directly into your eyes." "And the effects of that?" "Completely unknown." Someone referred to the 2005 Truman Capote movie as playing "like a mad scientist with a lisp" and I sort of imagine some of Mander's text being similar. I'm sure some of this was written tongue in cheek - but could I be seeing humor when it wasn't intended. Well, I don't think so, but who knows. I think this is why some find the book brilliant and others find certain arguments "ridiculous".
Books:
- Alaska: A Light in the Window/Destiny's Road/Iditarod Dream/Christmas Dream (Heartsong Novella Collection)
- All the Pretty Horses
- AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law)
- As Seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s
- Bean There Done That: The Life and Times of Rowan Atkinson
- Born O'Hurley (The Last Honest Woman / Dance to the Piper)
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season One, Volume 1
- Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal Account of the Making of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
- Combat Medic Field Reference
- Creating Powerful Radio: Getting, Keeping and Growing Audiences News, Talk, Information & Personality Broadcast, HD, Satellite & Internet
Books Index
Books Home
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