In chapter two, Postman makes his purpose even clearer. He wants to prove how television has made our media into nonsense. Postman immediately goes on, however, to say that the best part of television is its nonsense; the problem is that people want to take television seriously, and for television's output to be significant. Probably one of the most important parts of this reading, in my opinion, was the definition of epistemology (a subject concerned with the origins and nature of knowledge). Through resonance, Postman claims, media gains a power much greater than it originally may have. This is only transcended in subcultures (university settings, courtrooms, etc.) where the written word is given higher precedence than the spoken.
Through a phrase called "print-intelligence," Postman makes the case that we are growing sillier and sillier by moving from print-based epistemology to television-based epistemology. We must be able to distinguish tone as well as be able to see through it, Postman says, as well as a number of other things, in order to be not ruined by television, as it "pollutes public communication and its surrounding landscape (page 28)."
What is the truth of this today, with our internet-based epistemology?
Why are certain environments (courtrooms, universities) slower to change than the rest?
What sort of things are "resonant" today?
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