Disconnected America
The Consequences of Mass Media in a Narcissistic World
Ed Shane PSU P92.U5 S48 2001
- p66 The worst crimes are increasing in central cities, but not suburbs.
- September 1993, tourist shot in car at Miami International, another shot at rest area 500 miles north
- conflated by national TV, hence Floridians say their state a dangerous place to live
- Public rated DC as fourth most violent city, actually 88th on 1995 American Demographics list, not published after 2004
p99 Martin Hash ( Animation Master software for Windows)
- "only 1 in 10,000 will purchase a $199 animation program, but everyone will pay a nickle for five minutes of entertainment ... It's amazing how the brittle mantle of civility is shattered if even the thinnest veil of anonymity is shattered"
- And anonymity is the best friend of the disconnected.
p166 "To pretend that one can provide a remedy would not only be naïve but duplicitous, since it would necessarily indulge in the same sort of fantasy that got us here in the first place: that problems, like crises in movies, are susceptible to simple narrative solutions" Neal Gabler, Life in the Movie 1999, p9
p167 Technopoly by Neal Postman:
- Americans forget, but others do not, a series of experiments that the world watches with wonder."
p179 Given his (Marshall McLuhan's) background of serious academic study, he was asked why he enlarged his scope to include mass communications. His answer: "I find most pop culture monstrous and sickening. I study it for my own survival."
- So must we all.