Amusing Ourselves To Death Analysis

We communicate through film. In contemporary society, film is a metaphor for conversation, as Postman argues in chapter one of his novel, “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” film is a metaphor for technologies and techniques that permit people to exchange messages. The message exchange includes expressions of concepts, ideas and beliefs. In return, this exchange of messages helps fuel the debate and topics of discourse in society. Film plays a substantial representation of the way people communicate with each other, so “our languages, are our media.” (Postman 1) In today’s society, film and its concepts are the one of the only real forms of discussion. Film often ignites real discussion and reflection about perspective and consciousness because there …show more content…
As discussed earlier, film can be an exchange of messages, but a film can also play a role society by portraying a culture or belief in a way that persuades the audience to understand and respect the way people in other cultures live or how one person chooses to live in a society. The filmmakers can insert a culture or belief into a film so successfully that an audience may find themselves with a different perspective of that culture then they had before watching the film. “Pocahontas” filmmakers may have wanted to show the two different cultures in a way that sympathizes with the Native Americans and demonizes the English explorers. “Pocahontas” expresses how film can be influential to the way people perceive other culture. The content of this film serves as metaphor of our culture because most Americans don’t rely on information from books anymore, so they gain their understandings of different cultures, in this case, Native Americans through film. The concepts in “Pocahontas” may not be completely accurate but Americans still choose to accept this understanding because it was conveniently expressed and shown in a way that amuses