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From: MJackson.Wbst@Xerox.COM (Mark Jackson)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Blending Oral and Written Traditions by Electronic mail
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Date: Wed, 13-May-87 14:19:52 EDT
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Posted: Wed May 13 14:19:52 1987
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And if one isn't up for reading Plato's /Dialogues/, or wants a more
contemporary view, let me suggest Neil Postman's /Amusing Ourselves to
Death/.  Postman traces the history of the displacement of the oral by
the written tradition, with particular attention to the effect on how
matters of public policy are publicly debated.

(The book is *really* about how first rapid communications, then
photography, then television have caused the "entertainment model" to
replace the "discourse model" as the framework by which *all* public
events are evaluated.  Aside from one or two parenthetical comments, the
only mention of computers is quoted in full in my message [Re: Examples
from Scandinavia] of a few minutes ago to Steve Barber.  But the
background on how the medium is the message [to coin a phrase] is, in my
view, essential to the "computer literacy" discussion.)

Mark