> TV didn't have the damage on our society that he expected. Postman examined television in the context of 200 years of American typographically delivered news

> TV didn't have the damage on our society that he expected. Postman examined television in the context of 200 years of American typographically delivered news. What was different about newspapers, pamphlets, magazines and journals is that the written form encouraged the presentation of evidence and the construction of arguments with a logical foundation, often prefaced or buttressed with historical context. Television news is different in three major ways: 1. Articles are 30 - 45 seconds long, then the topic changes to something unrelated, or a word from our sponsor. 2. Each article requires no previous knowledge of a topic. An elephant tipping over a tourist bus is featured as its own spectacle, without any consideration of how the land was used for the previous millennium. 3. The actors are personalities with images. Contrast this with print and radio where the main information that was transmitted about a news actor was his or her argument, actions, and the consequences thereof.