Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2048298 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.03 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
"It's time to realize TV must be doing something right to reach and affect so many people and that teleliteracy is something to be quantified and upgraded and utilized, not ignored," David Bianculli declares in his defense of teleliteracy--the widespread knowledge of television that ties Americans together in ways other media cannot. He acknowledges the faults of television -- sex and violence to a widespread audience -- but contends that TV has delivered positive role models, good storytelling and likable characters. Bianculli, a television critic for The New York Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer, offers an interesting defense of a much-maligned medium.

From Publishers Weekly
This conversationally written, zesty but hollow manifesto extolling the benefits of television is only likely to persuade the switched-on. Bianculli, TV critic for the New York Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer , concedes that "90% of television is . . . crap," but insists that "the best of television is very good indeed." Far from being a corrupter of literacy, the tube, he speciously argues, can make viewers more literate through programs like Sesame Street and adaptations of Dickens or Trollope that send viewers back to the novels. Dismissing links between TV violence and street violence as impossible to prove, he urges that classrooms teach children what TV can offer and praises the medium's coverage of the Gulf War. Drawing on interviews with Linda Ellerbee, Bill Cosby, Peter Jennings, Kurt Vonnegut, Shelley Duvall and others, Bianculli presents a rosy image of television as a growing, maturing medium, better now than in its golden age. A gimmicky "teleliteracy quiz" is included. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
At times taking television too seriously, newspaper columnist Bianculli nonetheless offers a thoughtful view of a much-maligned medium. Contradicting Marshall McLuhan, he asserts, "it's the message, not the medium, that's the message." Television's global reach, he argues, "can open windows of observation--and opportunity--that otherwise would be unavailable or incomprehensible." He wants television "to be judged in context, without preconceptions, on its own merits." The author interviews a number of experts, including Peter Jennings, Linda Ellerbee, and Bill Moyers, who offer frequently insightful reflections. Among the subjects discussed at length are news coverage, dramatic programming, and television as a learning tool. An interesting study for any media or popular culture collection.
-Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.