In chapter 7 of Amusing Ourselves To Death, Postman focuses on the news and how it has become a form of entertainment. It is likely that your parents have told you " be quiet, I'm watching the news," or "shh, this is important" when you were younger. This set the precedent that news was very important adult business and that kids rarely take interest in. This made it difficult for me to see it as a form of entertainment at first.
Postman explains the use of music and attractive people that make news more engaging. When you think about those two factors along with the fact that many news casters make small jokes or puns, the news sounds like a fun show to watch, and not serious at all. This is the danger Postman warns of, the news is made out to be serious but it is still just entertainment.
This wasn't the case when all news was in newspapers, right? While many newspapers were far more serious than today's news channels, they were still meant to be slightly entertaining. Newspaper publishers often added small comic strips to the side of papers for kids and even adults to get a laugh out of. For this reason, I believe that news was entertaining before television and even before the printing press because entertainment is what kept people listening or reading. If news is boring no one wants to watch the news channel or buy a newspaper, entertainment always has, and always will, sell.
-Jenee Turner
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