Ubavit se k smrti - Média ve věku zábavy – Postman Neil (2026)

In this influential book, Neil Postman argues that every civilisation has a dominant medium that determines what it focuses its attention on, an idea he describes as “the medium is the metaphor”. Written in the United States during the 1980s, when television dominated, the book primarily examines the influence of that medium. Television emphasises visual presentation, entertainment, sensationalism and emotion; news is expected to be interesting rather than informative, and viewers have little time to reflect as one report follows another. Postman shows how this affects the presentation of politicians and religious leaders, as well as education in schools. People choose politicians less for their political vision than for their appearance and entertainment value. We live in a “peek-a-boo world” overflowing with information that often lacks meaning, where being intelligent means knowing about many things rather than truly understanding them. Serious matters become shows and citizens become passive consumers who laugh without knowing what they are laughing at. Postman urges readers not to sacrifice intellectual needs and seriousness to visual media, qualities he associates with the culture of print.