How the News Makes Us Dumb: The Death of Wisdom in an Information Society

by C. John Sommerville

Book Overview

C. John Sommerville argues that even at its best the news is beyond repair, and lost in the tidal wave of information is our ability to discern news of true significance.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830822038
• ISBN13: 9780830822034
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: IVP
• Length: 155 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Finally, it is explained.

I and others who have lawsuits which gain noteriety have often wondered how the press so consistently gets it wrong. We thought we had figured why TV always did, but the newspapers', even the good ones, erroneous reporting baffled us. This book explains why. I wish he had come up with some way of fixing the news; but as Prof. Sommerville notes, it's inherent in the beast. News, by virtue of its "dailyness," will always miss the point, and always miss the significance. What we could never understand--until now--is how the news would be biased in favor of my clients in one case and against them in the next, even when dealing with the same issues. Nor could we understand how the press could get the case facts wrong and even more importantly, get the case's significance wrong, irrespective of the bias. No one will read the news in the same way again. I note that a few of my fellow amateur reviewers didn't like the book for reasons which frankly defy reason. I invite you to read the book and decide. It is said that one test of a new idea is how well it explains previously unexplained phenomena. Under that test, Sommerville's thesis is inescapably valid.

Doing Devotionals/Prayers Biblically

This small book is really practical in nature. The book is divided into two parts. The 1st part is how to pray through scriptures. The 2nd part contains a list of scriptures that can be prayed through and meditated over arranged according to different topics. How to use this list is explained in the 1st part.Indeed as the back of the book writes, "Although Christians are lovers of the Bible, not all have learned and followed the venerable Christian custom of praying directly from Scripture."This is very true. This book isn't a book on the theology of prayer, but rather, it's a book teaching Christians a very neglected way of praying - Praying through Scriptures.Christians often do not know what to pray for. The content is often missing. That's why it is so important to learn from scriptural prayers what to pray and include in our prayers. This book helps in this area.What is learnt here is something like DA Carson's book - "A Call to Spiritual Reformation - Priorities from Paul and His prayers." If you loved that book, you'll definitely love Howard's book. And if Carson's book revolutionalized your prayer life and taught you a very different way of approaching your prayers and devotion, this book will do more - if you follow through on its ideas and use the list in the 2nd part of the book.Like i said, the book is very practical. That's because of the list compiled in the 2nd part of the book. Therefore, those who have finished reading the book (the first part), have really only just begun. The challenge is to use the list at the book, and include Scriptures in your prayers. I'm going to do that and I believe it will help my prayer life.

Don't Be a News Junky - Kick the Habit Now

How can you know for sure that they are not telling you the truth? That is the question answered by this little gem of a book. We have all known that if you watch TV you are wasting your time for TV is junk food for the mind - mental material of no intellectual or lasting value. In fact, studies have shown that while watching TV all the great powers of the human mind are quiescent. The sadder part about this is that TV prevents us from using that time for better purposes such as sleeping or reading or, should I even mention it in this hyped up era, for thinking. Lost opportunities to learn and think eventually take their toll and make us dumb. The same holds true for reading the newspapers. The paucity of wit and wisdom in the news is no accident, as Professor Sommerville so well knows. It is by design. And the design is to sell more newspapers and their glitz bag counterparts, magazines. The design is to make us information junkies and overdose us on trivia. Fortunately, the solution to this gigantic problem might be close at hand. Read his book and discover for yourself what that solution is.

Insightful, informative, eye-opening reading!

...How The News Makes Us Dumb is a brilliant diagnoses of the modern news industry, the sound-bitten wasteland of the daily and nightly news, and how we have allowed this utter nonsense to dominate and numb our lives. Filled with deep insights and plain common sense, the book not only carves up this sacred cow, but explains how our personal lives, and our neighborhoods, could be revitalized if we substantially reduced the amount of time we spend reading and watching the news.The onslaught of news has not made everyone happy. More than 150 years ago, Henry David Thoreau advised: "Read not the Times, Read the Eternities." More recent information critics include Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves To Death, 1986), James Fallow (Breaking The News, 1996) and Barry Sanders (The Private Death Of Public Discourse, 1998). And of course the unforgettable 1976 film Network, where a television anchorman played by Peter Finch (who died of a heart attack during the promotional campaign of the film) inspires thousands of people to throw open their windows and shout: "I can't stand it anymore!"Other writers have blasted the news from many angles: it is biased; it frightens us into passiveness; it is controlled by corporations with the one sublime goal of selling us things we don't need. Sommerville's critique is thoroughly unique. He argues that the news -- from newspapers and televisions -- the news makes us dumb because it comes to us daily. News has become a product, a commodity. To keep us reading, to feed our addiction, the newspapers and television stations need to fill their spaces every day and make this filler seem as if it's crucially important. Because there is rarely a story of true urgency, in a balanced culture, the news would not be daily. Sommerville writes: "The only reason for making news daily is to create an information industry."When we watch tv news, Sommerville argues, we get sound bites that average 20-seconds in length or less. We watch the news and we mistakenly believe we are informed. But to truly understand things we need not news but wisdom, which is the ability to see events in a larger context. Sommerville says that the news as it is served to us, by its very nature, destroys these larger contexts. His acid test for value is the question: Is this worth reading again? And he says that, one month later, to re-read a newspaper will reveal it to be worthless, but to re-read a classic book gives us a much deeper understanding of things.The book contains dozens of contradictory headlines taken from major newspapers, such as this headline from the New York Times (June 8, 1995): "Greenspan Sees Chance of Recession," and this headline, on the same day, from the Washington Post: "Recession Is Unlikely, Greenspan Concludes." And Sommerville provides other amusing tidbits: he tells us about the Bedouin Shepherds in Palestine who, when they need some cash, simply find ancient documents, tear them into little

Newsflash!! Information does not make one wise!!

C.John Sommerville has produced an excellent quick read detailing the reason daily news MUST fail to bring wisdom to its consumers. This is a timely thesis for our news obsessed and saturated society and since completing the book some months ago my life has changed for the better. During my recent daily news "diet-restriction" I have become better informed and more active in the topics that truely have a bearing upon myself, my family, and my community. He points out the obvious fact that news corporations are businesses, and the end business of business is to make money. How does that happen with regard to the news? By creating consuming, returning customers. Therefore, the driving purpose of the daily news is not to inform, but rather to SELL. The detail C. John Sommerville provides to support this point is sufficient and the style is appropriate.I would commend this book to anyone with a mind open enough to consider questioning the importance of the daily drivel.