Product Details
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
By Jerry Mander

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Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #38488 in Books
  • Published on: 1978-02-01
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 376 pages

Editorial Reviews

Synopsis
Depicts television as a technological monster, a menace to the psychology of the individual and to the environment, and an instrument of unprecedented autocratic power.

Customer Reviews

Interesting...4
This book sets out with very laudable aims and, in providing four different arguments, is pretty much guaranteed to hit home with every reader. Even if you can ignore the slightly more 'new-age' arguments (well, it was written in the 70's) the more technical ones will serve to convince you of the truth of Mander's point.

It is very US-centric and because of it's age can seem a bit out of touch. In many ways though that only serves to increase its impact as we see where the evolution of TV has taken it since the book was written.

In short an interesting read and well worth dipping into...

A classic4
This is a classic rant on what is so bad about the modern experience and in particular Television. It contains many thought provoking facts and personal stories. It's weekness is that it was written nearly 25 years ago and the world has moved on a fair amount since then. Much of it appears naive with hind site. The major points it makes are still true however. Television largely dictates what is communicated. If it doesn't work on TV it doesn't rate at all in modern society. We are basically limiting what we accept as valid human experiences to those things that can be communicated through the mass media. Everything else is disregarded. The technology is changing society and is in no way neutral.

If capitalism means blind acceptance ...5
If capitalism means we should blindly accept everything that's put up for our consumption, then this book is anti-capitalist.

Mander's analysis of the mediated experience is especially valuable. It is a good perspective for examining everything we do to try to understand our world and enjoy ourselves. That is, do we accept a pre-chewed reality that somebody sells to us, or do we discover it for ourselves?