However, as media analyst and cultural critic Neil Postman stated in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, “A new medium is merely an extension or amplification of an older one” (Postman 83-84). Thus, by studying the effects of television on entertainment, one can also understand the implications of the relationship between small screen media and entertainment. In Postman’s piece he argues that telegraphs, television, and the creation of our “Peek-a-boo” world, a world where information pops in and out of our conscious due to its overabundance and irrelevancy, has altered discourse. The way in which television does this is by making information entertaining. Postman states, “Television offers viewers a variety of subject matter, requires minimal skills to comprehend it, and is largely aimed at emotional gratification” (Postman 86). In this way, YouTube and other small screen media are similar to television. They also require little skill to understand, which is why their international audience is expansive. Expanding on the notion that entertainment has masked discourse on television, he goes on to explain that, “Entertainment is the supra-ideology of all discourse on television. No matter what is depicted or from what
However, as media analyst and cultural critic Neil Postman stated in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, “A new medium is merely an extension or amplification of an older one” (Postman 83-84). Thus, by studying the effects of television on entertainment, one can also understand the implications of the relationship between small screen media and entertainment. In Postman’s piece he argues that telegraphs, television, and the creation of our “Peek-a-boo” world, a world where information pops in and out of our conscious due to its overabundance and irrelevancy, has altered discourse. The way in which television does this is by making information entertaining. Postman states, “Television offers viewers a variety of subject matter, requires minimal skills to comprehend it, and is largely aimed at emotional gratification” (Postman 86). In this way, YouTube and other small screen media are similar to television. They also require little skill to understand, which is why their international audience is expansive. Expanding on the notion that entertainment has masked discourse on television, he goes on to explain that, “Entertainment is the supra-ideology of all discourse on television. No matter what is depicted or from what