In this innovative book, the authors persuasively argue that the First Amendment to the Constitution has risen in the late twentieth century, like an ill-guided individual with knife in hand, to murder a long-standing tradition of fine and meaningful discourse in the United States. What has died is the essential kind of political discourse which promotes democracy; informs citizens; enlivens debate; and carries reason, method, and purpose. Instead, we are bombarded with the cacophony of advertisement, the luridity of pornography, and the pointlessness of prime time.With satirical spirit and wit yet to a very serious purpose the narrative of this lively study calls upon many of the very tricks” it criticizes. The text is augmented by amusing tales, poetry, tv zaps, eyebites, and boxes of aphorisms resonating between high and low culture, between Plato and Geraldo and Madonna and Mahler to make its points, the discussion reveals how discourse in contemporary America has lost its integrity and its soul.
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About the Author:
Ronald K. L. Collins is a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Virginia.
From Publishers Weekly:
The text of the First Amendment as it pertains to freedom of speech is plain and broad: "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." Collins, co-founder of the Center for the Study of Commercialism, and Skover, a law professor at Seattle University Law School, are concerned that the simple language hides a chasm between the 18th-century intent and 20th-century social and technological realities that encourage not free exchange of ideas but a mind-numbing pursuit of self-gratification. Huxley's dystopia is looking far more familiar than Orwell's. The authors argue that we ought to reconsider First Amendment protections for TV that has sacrificed its public interest mandate to sound bites and dulling entertainment; for advertising that creates reactive consumers rather than well-informed citizens by touting image over information (think Calvin Klein jeans); for pornography that no longer pretends to satire or self-realization but is simple self-indulgence. This is descriptive, the authors say time and again, not normative, so there is little by way of prescriptions. And the book's design includes many of the elements the authors criticize in other media, including slogans, side-bars and other disruptions of the discourse. But the main argument is important: Not everyone will agree with Collins's and Skover's assessment, but every reader will come away feeling that there is much to be lost by adhering to the letter of the First Amendment and ignoring its spirit.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherWestview Press
- Publication date1996
- ISBN 10 0813327229
- ISBN 13 9780813327228
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages320
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