“The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures”

Neil Postman and Steve Powers wrote a short essay called “The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures.” This essay has tons of great detailed description of the structure of a newscast. Postman and Powers claim the differences between stationary pictures, moving pictures and language is all how the media and their viewers look at it, which is quite simple. This is important to a larger point in an essay because Postman and Powers are providing evidence describing the difference between stationary pictures, moving pictures and languages by speaking about the newspaper and television shows. For instance, a television show contains series of events that occurs in a sequence, and the sequence is the same for all viewers (Postman and Powers, 1992, p. 488). When a newspaper page displays many items, allowing readers to choose the order they would like to read it in. Or just read a brief summary and make a decision if they want to continue reading the same topic or to change it. Postman and Powers main claim about today’s newscast is that viewers must come with a prepared mind, with information, opinions, a sense of proportion, an articulate value system (Postman and Powers, 1992, p.488). This is because viewers are lacking such mental equipment and the huge difference of newspaper articles and a television show. I definitely agree with Postman and Powers because sometimes I do not view a magazine with a “prepared mind.” While waiting in the line at the grocery store I would grab a magazine and read the interesting topics about celebrities and I usually leave the grocery story shocked about what I read. This is because I did not have all of the information about this celebrity and I believed what the media says. Overall, Postman and Powers did an excellent job describing the difference between stationary pictures, moving pictures and languages.

Postman, N & Powers, S. (1992). The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures (pp. 481-489). In L. Gray-Rosendale (Ed.) Pop Perspective: readings to critique contemporary culture. Boston: McGraw-Hill.