Four arguments for the elimination of television
by Jerry Mander · first published 1978
75% recommend13% neutral13% critical
Why HN recommends it
Critique of television's effects on attention, society and culture, with a former ad executive's inside view of advertising; readers call it eye-opening and relevant. Suits those curious about media's influence.
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If this study has you scratching your head about the impact of digital media, do have a read of "Four arguments for the elimination of television" by Jerry Mander. The arguments included in it are no different than many of these new studies coming out. If you grew up to be a latchkey kid and had your fair share of TV/video games/etc, it might…
on “The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence” ↗…as well as the influence of advertising, "public relations" (a term coined by Bernays), and propaganda (the term he coined PR to avoid) on the public, corporations, and govenrment. Also Jerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, which is an ad-man's perspective on what is fatally flawed with his own industry. See also his later book, The Capitalism Papers. And of course, Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death and Technopoly.…
on “Is Advertising Morally Justifiable? The Importance of Protecting Our Attention” ↗…a blog post saying "TV is addictive and it's dying because of commercials" When the going gets tough, the tough goes shopping. There's actually a few books on this! i.e. consumerism and advertising Four arguments for the elimination of television by Jerry Mander Amusing ourselves to death by Neil Postman The shallows by Nicolas Carr And the classic, brave new world by Aldous Huxley
on “Is this the end of social networking?” ↗…useless stuff. If ads become more forced or have no option to remove in the future for any provider, I'm instantly out and will spend more money on books. Jerry Mander does an excellent job in his book "Four arguments for the elimination of television" about ads: > If you accept the existence of advertising, you accept a system designed to persuade and to dominate minds by interfering in people's thinking patterns. You also accept that the system…
on “2/3s of 1000 People Surveyed Canceled a Streaming Service in the Last Year” ↗…of the first environmental advertising and outreach campaigns, co-founded Friends of the Earth (backed by ARCO CEO Robert O Anderson, ponder that), and has written a couple of highly worthwhile books, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television and The Capitalism Papers. http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780688082741-13 http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9781619021587-0
on “Why I Am Not a Member of the American Psychological Association” ↗For further reading / enlightenment: Jerry Mander, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television Niel Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death and Technopoly. Gill Scott-Heron: "The Revolution Will Not be Televised"
on “Leonard Nimoy's Advice to a Biracial Girl in 1968” ↗…it's very much the same, and people have very much had a problem with that, which raises a second fault with your argument: false premise. Noam Chomsky. Pretty much his life's work. Jerry Mander, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. (NB: Mander is a former ad executive himself). Hamilton Holt, a magazine publisher himself, wrote of the fundamental problem in 1909, Commercialism and Journalism. https://archive.org/details/commercialismjou00holtuoft…
on “Introducing the Invisible reCAPTCHA” ↗"Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" from former ad-exec Jerry Mander
on “Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?” ↗…(https://is.muni.cz/el/1421/jaro2008/ESB032/um/5136660/MacDon...) (1953) (PDF), Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totaltarianism (http://gen.lib.rus.ec/search.php?req=arendt%20origins%20tota...), and Gerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television* (http://gen.lib.rus.ec/search.php?req=Mander+arguments+elimin...), for starters. Hamilton Holt's excellent 1909 lecture, "Commercialism and Journalism", available from the Internet Archive, addresses…
on “Content Is King (1996)” ↗“Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television” by Jerry Mander. I’m on my phone right now so can’t really give a good overview of it. But. Suffice it to say, it’s eye opening and 100% relevant. Highly recommend reading.
on “Thermometer Tells Your Temperature, Then Tells Firms Where to Advertise” ↗Mander is strongly recommended reading. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television https://www.worldcat.org/title/four-arguments-for-the-elimin... https://archive.org/search.php?query=mander+Four+arguments+f... http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=F119513A778FC924D7ED96B4...
on “Why to care about privacy after years of sharing data” ↗Hasn't this been known for a long time now? The Big Six? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_conglomerate If anything will wake you up, read or watch something by Jerry Mander. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television is life changing. That was written in 1978, well ahead of its time. > “[T]he problem was too much information. The population was being inundated with conflicting versions of increasingly complex events.…
on “Six companies control 90% of what you read, watch, and hear” ↗I would challenge more people to read "four arguments for the elimination of television" by Jerry Mander. As I'm reading this article, something felt eerily familiar to his description of 8 steps to autocracy: 1. Eliminate personal knowledge. 2. Eliminate points of comparison to the past.…
on “Zuckerberg Sees Project Cambria ‘Eventually Replacing Your Laptop’” ↗…<https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/newtonminow.htm> It pairs well with Edward R. Murrow's "Lights and Wires in a Box" (1958) <https://www.rtdna.org/murrows-famous-wires-and-lights-in-a-b...> And Jerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (1978) <https://archive.org/details/fourargumentsfor00mand_0> Earlier related submissions (little if any discussion): 60th Anniversary of the Launch of Telstar Communications Satelite <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32089535>…
on “Newton Minow, former FCC chief and public TV advocate, has died at 97” ↗…our society worse by installing these devices that were causing manufactured outrage, hate, and selective truth telling. Soon after I left, I found a book while thrifting that came out in 1978 called "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" by Jerry Mander. I laughed at the title and couldn't believe someone was already arguing for the detriments of TV before I was born. It's very well written and the points he makes are still relevant…
on “Television is 100 years old today” ↗