C. John Sommerville's Books

How the News Makes Us Dumb

The Death of Wisdom in an Information Society

By: C. John Sommerville

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How the News Makes Us Dumb

The Death of Wisdom in an Information Society

By: C. John Sommerville

We who live at the end of the twentieth century are better informed--and more quickly informed--than any people in history. So why do we also seem more confused, divided and foolish than ever before? Some pundits criticize the news media for political bias. Other analysts worry that up-to-the-minute news reports on radio and television oversimplify complex realities. Still more critics point out that today's reporters can't possibly be experts on the wide variety of subjects they cover. Historian C. John Sommerville thinks the problem with news is more basic. Focusing his critique on the news at its best, he concludes that even at its best it is beyond repair. Sommerville argues that news began to make us dumber when we insisted on having it daily. Now millions of column inches and airtime hours must be filled with information--every day, every hour, every minute. The news, Sommerville says, becomes the driving force for much of our public culture. News schedules turn politics into a perpetual campaign. News packaging influences the timing, content and perception of government initiatives. News frenzies make a superstition out of scientific and medical research. News polls and statistics create opinion as much as they gauge it. Lost in the tidal wave of information is our ability to discern truly significant news--and our ability to recognize and participate in true community. This eye-opening book is for everyone dissatisfied with the state of the news media, but especially for those who think the news really informs them about and connects them with the real world. Read it and you may never again know the tyranny of the daily newspaper or the nightly news broadcast.

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Page Count

156

Publisher

InterVarsity Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

083087559X

ISBN 13

9780830875597

The Decline of the Secular University

By: C. John Sommerville

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The Decline of the Secular University

By: C. John Sommerville

The American university has embraced a thorough secularism that makes it increasingly marginal in a society that is characterized by high levels of religious belief. The very secularization that was supposed to be a liberating influence has resulted in the university's failure to provide leadership in political, cultural, social, and even scientific arenas. In The Decline of the Secular University, C. John Sommerville explores several different ways in which the secular university fails in its mission through its trivialization of religion. He notes how little attention is being given to defining the human, so crucial in all aspects of professional education. He alerts us to problems associated with the prevailing secular distinction between "facts" and "values." He reviews how the elimination of religion hampers the university from understanding our post-Cold War world. Sommerville then shows how a greater awareness of the intellectual resources of religion might stimulate more forthright attention to important matters like our loss of a sense of history, how to problematize secularism, the issue of judging religions, the oddity of academic moralizing, and the strangeness of science at the frontiers. Finally, he invites the reader to imagine a university where religion is not ruled out but rather welcomed as a legitimate voice among others. Sommerville's bracing and provocative arguments are sure to provoke controversy and stimulate discussion both inside and outside the academy.

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Page Count

160

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190294485

ISBN 13

9780190294489

Religious Ideas for Secular Universities

By: C. John Sommerville

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Religious Ideas for Secular Universities

By: C. John Sommerville

During the last century American students and scholars have found it increasingly difficult to discuss the relation of religion to the mission of self-consciously secular colleges and universities. Respected scholar C. John Sommerville here offers thought-provoking reflections on this subject in a conversational style. / Sommerville explores the crisis of the secular university, argues that religion and secular universities need each other, and examines how Christianity shows up on both sides of our culture wars. The astute reflections in Religious Ideas for Secular Universities point the way to a dialogue that would do justice both to religious insights and to truly neutral secular education.

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Page Count

204

Publisher

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0802864422

ISBN 13

9780802864420

The News Revolution in England

Cultural Dynamics of Daily Information

By: C. John Sommerville

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The News Revolution in England

Cultural Dynamics of Daily Information

By: C. John Sommerville

The News Revolution in England: Cultural Dynamics of Daily Information is the first book to analyze the essential feature of periodical media, which is their periodicity. Having to sell the next issue as well as the present one changes the relation between authors and readers--or customers--and subtly shapes the way that everything is reported, whether politics, the arts and science, or social issues. So there are certain biases that are implicit in the dynamics of news production or commodified information, quite apart from the intentions of journalists. With the birth of the commercial periodical in late seventeenth century England, news became a commodity. What constituted news, how it was presented and received, and how people responded to it underwent a fundamental change. Rather than any democratic print revolution, in which the masses suddenly had access to cheap and accessible information, C. John Sommerville shows that the arrival of the commercial press was in fact restrictive, dictating what was discussed and ultimately how it was discussed. The News Revolution in England looks at the history of journalism from an entirely different angle--the effect of the medium rather than the intentions of the journalists. It will be of interest to historians of England, journalism, and news, along with anyone interested in how the media shapes our world and how we come to relate to it.

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Page Count

208

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195355490

ISBN 13

9780195355499

Book's by C. John Sommerville

How the News Makes Us Dumb

How the News Makes Us Dumb

The Decline of the Secular University

The Decline of the Secular University

Religious Ideas for Secular Universities

Religious Ideas for Secular Universities

The News Revolution in England

The News Revolution in England

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