In ‘Now…This,’ chapter 7 of Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman argues that by tis very nature medium of television decontextualizes and devalues the information it conveys thus creating a culture of pure entertainment. In support of his argument he makes the following three points: that television commercials devalue the stories that precede and follow them; that the short length and diluted content of the average news story causes even the most serious news to seem trivial; and that executives in the television news industry have been known to promote showmanship at the cost of journalistic depth.
First, Postman argues that television commercials will always defuse the importance of whatever program precedes them. As an example, he