Analyzing “The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures”

In the essay, The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures author’s Neil Postman and Steve Powers set out to answer a question of the mind. The question Postman and Powers seek to find out what has the greater influence in essence light or sound. Through their essay and the information provided from within it, we hope to find the differences between pictures, moving pictures and language.

Postman and Powers thoughts on pictures were that they missed the element of depth. Sure a picture could convey a level of emotion but their quote says it all “By itself, a picture cannot deal with the unseen, the remote, the internal, the abstract”. (Postman and Powers, POP Perspectives pg, 485) Based on this statement it’s obvious the pictures require additional components to stand out.

Language can be consider a pure form of expression and based on how the words are linked together determine the meaning. With language as long as the statements are not altered the reader receives the information as intended. When it comes to language with pictures “Language makes them comprehensible”. (Postman and Powers, POP Perspectives pg, 485).

In moving pictures the sky’s the limit, your imagination is not require just look and learn. It appears the authors Postman and Powers bring a strong point when it comes to moving pictures. “This leads to an important point about the language of pictures: Moving pictures favor images that change”. (Postman and Powers, POP Perspectives pg, 486).

Postman and Powers claim that today’s newscasts should actually be called re-creation due their reports coming after the fact. They back their claim with this “All news shows , in a sense, are re-creations in that what we hear and see on them are attempts to re-present actual events, and are not the events themselves”. (Postman and Powers, POP Perspectives pg, 482).