The Sound Bite Society: Television and the American Mind.

Jeffrey Scheuer. The Sound Bite Society: Television and the American Mind. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1999.

This thoughtful and provocative book argues that television, with its brief sound bites and uncomplicated messages, is a medium of simplification and so is well-suited to conservative ideology which values simplicity over complexity.

Scheuer contends, "The electronic culture fragments information into isolated, dogmatic particles and resists longer and more complex messages. These characteristics militate against a vision that emphasizes 1) change, including gradual or evolutionary change; 2) abstraction, an important tool for envisioning and framing change; 3) ambiguity and nonbinary thinking; 4) reasoning that appeals to causal, contextual, or environmental considerations; 5) divergence between appearance and reality; and 6) stronger bonds between individual, community, and nation. The sound bite culture ... reinforces a contrary vision: one that focuses on the immediate and obvious; the near-term, and the particular; on identity between appearance and reality; and on the self rather than larger communities. Above all it is a society that thrives on simplicity and disdains complexity. And simplicity ... is epitomically conservative, whereas complexity is quintessentially progressive."

This last notion could be seen as politically partisan and Scheuer takes care to point out that "simplicity" is not the same as "simplistic" or "simpleminded." He believes rather that simplicity relates to a conservative belief in a simpler theory of government and the social contract, a belief that "demands less of individuals and offers less in return; that argues for smaller government, lower taxes, fewer services, and less regulation, preferring to leave the market alone rather than to curb or offset it; that seeks to maximize personal autonomy over other freedoms and implies that government -- not other institutions or individuals -- is the primary threat to individual freedom. A simpler ideology propounds a more rudimentary form of personal freedom (as opposed to one that offers greater protection from other individuals and institutions) and less equality."

Scheuer maintains that, in addition to creating an ideological bias, the sound bite culture has greatly impoverished the quality and tone of political debate in America. I agree with this conclusion and offer a modest remedy. Have warning labels on televisions sets that say, "Too much use can harm the ability of the viewer to pay close attention to what is going on in the world and can impair one's ability to make well-reasoned political judgments."