Medium metaphor analysis: Using Neil Postman's ideology as a critical model for political communication (Postman, Neil)

Media-metaphors determine the world around us by defining our language (Postman, 1985). Television, the most influential media-metaphor, presents a Faustian bargain to our culture by tempting us with entertainment at the price of logic. Using the theoretical framework of Neil Postman's ideology, Medium Metaphor Analysis establishes a cultural approach to evaluating televised political commercials. Medium Metaphor Analysis has four steps: (1) analysis of the symbolic forms of the information, (2) analysis of the source of the information given in the commercial, (3) analysis of the quantity and speed of the information channeled to the audience, and (4) analysis of the context in which information is experienced (Postman). Analyzing and applying these phases allows greater understanding of the affect television has on a culture.