MR: In Amusing Ourselves to Death, you have a chapter on the influence of entertainment on religion. Do you think that modernity comes to us in stealthlike fashion, and sometimes Christians and other groups can be naive in viewing style as neutral?
NP: I certainly think that it is a mistake to believe that style is neutral, especially if one means by "style" the form, or forms, in which messages address people. I try to make the point in Amusing Ourselves to Death that the style of television favors and amplifies the entertainment mode. In cases like politics, news, and especially religion, I think that poses a very serious problem, because religion-and Christianity in particular-is a demanding discipline. And although there is joy and exultation that results from religious experience, when we present religion as nothing different from a Broadway show, I think it trivializes and corrupts the religious experience. If there are people who think that it makes no difference how messages are conveyed to people, that one form is just as good as the other, I think these people are underestimating the power of the forms in media.
If you have a current subscription or current on-line account please log-in here to read the rest of this article.
1 [ Back ] Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Penguin, 1986), 55-56.
2 [ Back ] Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (New York: Knopf, 1992), 164
3 [ Back ] Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, 122-133.
No bio information available for this author.
Issue: "Has Evangelicalism Lost Its Voice?: The Movement and Its Media" Sept./Oct. 1997 Vol. 6 No. 5 Page number(s): 32-34
You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you do not make more than 500 physical copies. We do not allow reposting an article in its entirety on the Internet. We request that you link to this article from your website. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by Modern Reformation (webmaster@modernreformation.org).
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: This article originally appeared in the [insert current issue date] edition of Modern Reformation and is reprinted with permission. For more information about Modern Reformation, visit www.modernreformation.org or call (800) 890-7556. All rights reserved.