Thursday, August 19, 2010
Where oh where as our current events gone?
After I finished reading Amusing Ourselves to Death, I began to think about Postman’s statement that all the news and information that we receive through media consists of fragmented pieces of information (Chapter 7 near the beginning). Near the end of Chapter 7, Postman also goes to say that our current society, newspapers, radio, and magazines change the way that current information is present to mirror how it is presented on television in order to appeal to the general public. These statements made me question the information that we are presented with everyday. If Postman’s statements are applicable to today’s society, which they are, then that would mean that all we have as our source of current information is a big heap of fragmented information. This made me question where we can get information that is not fragmented like the ones that we are constantly presented with on a day- to –day basis. I think that the only source for un-fragmented information that we can get is from our studies. But this, however is redundant because by the time the information actually comes out of the printing press and onto the student’s desk, then the current information would not be so current anymore. Do you agree?
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You're correct when you say that the only way to get reliable up to date information is gathering it yourself. However, each source you go to will always have some degree of perversion such as a book or actual studying of a live person or event. It is simply not feasible to be able to gather a coherent source of current accurate data by yourself without at some point perverting the context of the information.
ReplyDeleteYes Kylie, current has become yesterday's news. We may never have true and current news because our media world is so poluted that unless we were at the source of a news event. With that being said it makes our world look degraded and unfortunate.
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ReplyDeleteI agree, by the time it does get to the student it would have ceased of being current information. In my opinion the only source of information that is not fragmented are books but only certain books. The books that provide the public with coherent information and not books that are simply another part of the media.
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