Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

The “Age of Exposition” is the name Neil Postman gives the period when print media dominated America, namely the 18th-19th centuries. He uses this term because public discourse was shaped by written exposition, governed by the rules of facts, reason, deduction, and complex, hierarchical ideas.

Postman writes that the Age of Show Business supplanted the Age of Exposition, with roots in the latter 19th century but reaching fruition in the 20th century. This period was enabled by communication traveling faster than transportation (due to telegraphy) and the rise of images (due to photography). The two created a new metaphor of public discourse.

The Age of Television is the period within the Age of Show Business when television dominated the media landscape. Whereas the Age of Show Business started in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, the Age of Television occurred in the latter half of the 20th century. This period is the main focus of Part 2, as Postman examines television’s effects on American society.