An Analysis of the Screen Phenomenology in Postman's Thought from the Perspective of the Television Screen

Abstract

From the perspective of television screen, this research explores the phenomenology of screen referred in Neil Postmans thought. The media ecology theory underpins the development of Postmans thought, whereas on the basis of Marshall McLuhans the medium is the message, the media theorist put forth a series of such core arguments as media as metaphor to analyze impacts of television on society and culture and criticized the media culture represented by TV. Postman further expounded that the prevalent amusement-to-death inflicted by the immediate communication of electronic media had significantly undermined the rationality and dignity of traditional printing culture. In this vein, this study thenceforth takes technology and media as the entry point to investigate the development of television, as a media, amidst the contemporary media integration context, and to study the phenomenon of contemporary television screen and its extension and turn via the endeavor of interpreting the communication characteristics of electronic media.