Tag Archives: Neil Postman

Wealth, leisure and the attention economy in the 18C

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Whistlejacket by George Stubbs (1762)A while back, Clay Shirky (Gin, Tele­vi­sion and Social Sur­plus) invoked 18C Eng­land in arguing that gin was the enabling — and stu­pefy­ing — tech­no­logy of rapid urbanisation.

Tele­vi­sion, he argued, played the same role in — pre­sum­ably, he doesn’t really elab­or­ate — the sub­urb­an­isa­tion of the US in the second half of the 20C. The stu­pefac­tion of gin was chem­ical and pub­licly degrad­ing. The stu­pefac­tion of TV was elec­tronic and the degrad­a­tion? Well, you either stood with Neil Post­man or you went with the flow. Con­tinue read­ing →

The Trust Obsession

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CNN bills itself as the most trus­ted name in news. Director-General Mark Thompson reck­ons pub­lic trust is the life-blood of the BBC. Politi­cians and TV presenters wail and tear their clothes in pub­lic at the public’s loss of trust in the media. “Woe is us,” wails the col­lect­ive cry from the journ­al­ism pro­fes­sion, “they don’t believe.”

Media organ­isa­tions want to wal­low in trust like hip­pos in mud. They want to roll in it until they’re covered from head to toe. When it dries up, thanks to dodgy edit­ing on a royal doc­u­ment­ary promo or phoney com­pet­i­tions, the mud cracks and it’s a “crisis”. Con­tinue read­ing →