Amusing Ourselves to Death - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 - Shuffle Off to Bethlehem

1. What is a coiffure?

2. What is ecumenism?

3. What are Nielsen Ratings?

4. Does television really degrade religion?

5. What is idolatry?

REACTION:

Postman explains how two reverends use television as a campaign for people to join their religion. They use it to act out people finding their way to jesus making it seem realistic and that anyone could also experience the same thing. Using slogans and giving people something to look forward to on next weeks episodes are kind of odd when it comes to religion. A guy named Jimmy Swaggart realized that you could not be very biased when talking about religion on television, because you will never know who you will offend. Some conclusions Postman drew from a study he did was that religion on television was also presented as a form of entertainment, and the weakness of the medium of which a preacher works on screen. 
He explains how not everything can be put on tv and be expected to give the same message as it did in another form, sucha as a book or a conversation. People have gotten so carried away with the idea of recorded messages, that they never thought of how it might possibly affect the way people think, understand, interpret, and act. Preachers argue that if he can get the message out to more people on television than he can talk to in one church session, then why not do it? The only thing that is changing is the mode of delivery. The message is the same and the needs are the same. But what Postman is touching on is that if that medium of delivery is changed for a message, than the message is most likely going to be different. If a person interprets it differently off of the television because of the way it is presented, then the viewer is not getting the same message. I think a huge reason our message is altered with could be because of distractions, and lack of paying attention by a tv. When you go to church it is a silent, focused environment, but home can always be very hectic. A huge factor is simply just switching the channel to something completely irrelevant to what you were originally watching. The only real goal of any tv program is to attract an audience, no matter who it is. And it's not on a personal level it is all just random people, and they just want it to be for the popularity because the more popular they are the more money they make. 
Postman thinks that television makes religion out to be entertainment rather than enchantment. It does attract millions of viewers, but he states that it is besides the point. Mass education can apparently become entertaining no matter what it is. Whether it's tv or even going to school. He thinks that by driving religion into the entertainment aspect, it makes people begin to question its seriousness and truth a lot easier than if we weren't entertained by it. We don't take it seriously at all because of the media talking about so many different religions and our culture being so interracially mixed. Even in christian churches how they make it like a rock concerts, it is entertaining instead of disciplining. Providing rock music at a church environment is doing more psychological harm and causing a problem rather than fixing it. 
His statement at the very end of the chapter was extremely wise saying that "it is well understood at the national council that the danger is not that religion has become the content of television shows but that television shows may become the content of religion." This honestly couldn't be more true and I have already seen that happen at my dad's church they show videos of peoples experiences and basically anything else besides focusing on the bible. I am not religious at all, but the medium is definitely being changed and the people of our society are reflecting that for sure.