-
Title
-
Virtuous reality : how America surrendered discussion of moral values to opportunists, nitwits, and blockheads like William Bennett
-
Description
-
This book is for nervous parents, neo-Luddites, kids, journalists, rappers, intellectuals, digital wanna-bes, Webheads, MTV users and banners, Beavis & Butt-head fans, survivors of the 1996 presidential election and buyers of William Bennett's moral fables. Here's some of what it's about: Public discussions of culture and new media are hysterical, confusing and irrational. We have to start over. We blame our ascending, technologically distributed culture - music, TV shows, movies, computers - for crime, civic apathy and other social woes, while their complex causes and expensive solutions are ignored. Journalism has lost its moral moorings. Its new corporate owners have taken it far from its original purpose, as practiced by Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, and transformed it into a timid, stuffy, "objective" and increasingly destructive entity. We need to understand the good things the information revolution is bringing and not just wring our hands over the bad. Consider the way interactivity is democratizing the spread of information. How the Internet is transforming science and research. How individuals can now carry on their own dialogues, instead of submitting to the suffocating dictates of three networks and a few newspapers. How citizens have the machinery to join in the discussions of political life. Children need more, not less, access to technology, culture and information. We have been led into a false choice - the old culture versus the new - by shallow politicians and manipulable journalists. Sensible people can pick what they want and need from both cultures, each offering vast amounts of both excellence and garbage.
-
Identifier
-
676050
-
679449132
-
Creator
-
Katz, Jon
-
Format
-
1st ed.
-
Source
-
Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection
-
Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.
-
Catalog record
-
Language
-
eng
-
Date
-
1997
-
Program air date: March 23, 1997.
-
Publisher
-
Random House
-
George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives
-
Text
-
Transcription of Annotations
Front end papers: "Who is Martin Rimm?", pornography, Beavis and Butthead, Money Train, "what is old and new media", "What is a media phobe?', Bill Bennett--5 mil in 3 yrs-$40,00 per lecture, moral, teenage daughter, "Journalists have blown it--coverage of Internet 24 million users, William Paley, David Sarnoff, Leonard Goldenson--VCR's and zappers broke the grip, Justin Hall's Web Page, "journalism has helped create hysteria around popular culture, Communication Decency Act (CDA), media has no ideology, young are abandoning the press, "What is NECC?" Notes and underlinings: "old order is shaken", "cultural nervous breakdown", youth and digital revolution, Katz's career, Thomas Paine/Common Sense, zombie kids, nation of hermits, journalism, publishers, Media phobe--block, ban cancel, no credibility, bland, safe media, Thomas Merton, Rap, WWW, Internet, newspaper readers, newscast watcher's down, WELL, Hotwired, Ross Perot, free speech, Bob Dole, films and TV. incite violence, the Sensible person, John Locke, children's choices, digital generation.
-
Subject
-
"Mass media--Moral and ethical aspects."
-
"Mass media--Technological innovations."
-
Relation
-
Original Booknotes interview
-
Booknotes Oral History Project interview
-
Rights
-
This work may be protected by copyright laws and is provided for educational and research purposes only. Any infringing use may be subject to disciplinary action and/or civil or criminal liability as provided by law. If you believe that you are the rights-holder and object to Mason’s use of this image, please contact speccoll@gmu.edu.
676050.pdf