In chapter 2 of Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman talks about a conversation taken place in life about the differences between speech and print. This quote got my attention:
"You are mistaken in believing that the form in which an idea is conveyed is irrelevant to its truth. In the academic world, the published word is invested with greater prestige and authenticity than the spoken word. What people say is assumed to be more casually uttered than what they write. The written word is assumed to have been reflected upon and revised by its author, reviewed by authorities and editors."
(21)
But what about in the real world? Has technology made it easier to be lied to? We could compare a face-to-face conversation to a text message. When someone has done something wrong or is lying about something, they could deny it or say it over a text message because the other person can tell no emotion from the text and will believe them. Just like the quote says, it could be revised by its author many times. But in a face-to-face conversation, you could easily tell if someone is lying; body language, tone of voice or stuttering, and eye contact could make it easy to tell.
How about television? Commercials are usually full of false advertisements or they make something seem better than it really is. Let's use Carl's Jr. as an example. Their burgers look huge and tasty on T.V. but, when you go and buy one... it is half the size and kind of messy; it wasn't what you expected. Another example: Special Offer commercials. You get something for $19.99, AND you get one of the same product for free. They don't advertise the $10 shipping and handling or, sometimes, the TWO or THREE payments of $19.99.
I don't know for sure about the newspapers and the news on T.V. Is the newspaper more honest than the news on the television? Does television leave some things out that they don't want people to know? Is it more biased than newspapers? Because from what I've seen... The newspaper just tells the story and facts like they are, but sometimes the news on T.V. has the reporters state their opinion on the matter or, they have discussions about the topic. Could the news on television sway the watchers' minds more than the newspaper could sway the readers' minds?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with you Brittany. Commercials and ads are VERY deceitful, which makes sense. They want to 'trick' people into buying their products. Have you ever seen a commercial (in particular, a car commercial) and as the commercial comes to an end, you here the speaker talk really fast? That's because there is a catch, and they don't want you to hear it. Also, I agree about the Carl's Jr. When I see posters outside of their building, I think, "That looks really good." I order it, and it looks like garbage. Images can be very deceiving, Brittany.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you :]
ReplyDeletePictures and commercials can be very decieving Joey.
It happens with clothing stores also. For example, when they put outfits on manikins that look really cute, i go over and find that same outfit and try it on but it looks horrible on me!
I really hate it when that happens. A lot of clothes are made to look good on skinny people because they are skinny and have the perfect figure. Well why can't they make more of a variety of manikins for clothing stores instead of the skinny ones? Not everyone who shops in those stores are as skinny as the manikins...
whoops...got a little carried away.. hehehe:)