Includes bibliographical references (pages 363-371).
Contents
Introduction. The belly of the beast ; War to control the unity machine -- The mediation of experience. The walling of awareness ; Expropriation of knowledge ; Adrift in mental space -- The colonization of experience. Advertising : the standard-gauge railway ; The centralization of control -- Effects of television on the human being. Anecdotal reports : sick, crazy, mesmerized ; The ingestion of artificial light ; How television dims the mind ; How we turn into our images ; The replacement of human images by television -- The inherent biases of television. Information loss ; Images disconnected from source ; Artificial unusualness ; The pieces that fall through the filter -- Impossible thoughts. Television taboo.
Summary
Depicts television as a technological monster, a menace to the psychology of the individual and to the environment, and an instrument of unprecedented autocratic power.