Noise: How Our Media-saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families

Noise: How Our Media-saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families | Teresa Tomeo | A "must-have" for every home

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Noise: How Our Med...

	Noise: How Our Media-saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families Teresa Tomeo Ascension Press, 2007 - 190 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Wake up call for the TV generation

Wow! What an insightful book. A must read for everyone!

A "must-have" for every home

If you want to read a book on today's media and the family there is absolutely no better source than Teresa Tomeo. Teresa is a Catholic talk show host with deep roots in the media milieu, having spent most of her high school years, college internships, and all of her career in the trenches, as they say. Not only has Teresa, herself, been "in the business," but as a talk show host she has interviewed countless people who have contributed vastly to her understanding of the secular media's impact on the family.

If you are an adult you'll want Teresa's book, "Noise," in your home. You'll want it because even if you feel there isn't anything new that could be said about the media and its influence on you and your family, I will suggest that you are wrong. Not only is Teresa's book full of the latest in statistics that will shake you, and wake you, but I see her book as an anointed way to open dialogue between yourself and your children and to make a real difference in how you and your family view the secular media.

"Noise" is chock full of great stats. We all know that there are connections between media violence and aggression in children. We've seen the anorexic images of the likes of Nicole Ritchie and the alarmingly slim female television figures that ingratiate our teenage girls. We know that our teenage boys are inundated with internet pornographic temptations. But Teresa's book shares these stats within the context of real stories. Mind numbing data that we may have learned to shrug a cold shoulder at become very real, and feel too close for comfort, when we read of the woman whose teenage son was just completing intense therapy for internet pornography addictions or Sandra, a young mother with an out of control daughter (and I won't tell you the daughter's age). Needless to say, we can see glimpses of ourselves in these adults as we know the struggles parents face in raising children today and although we may raise an eyebrow, we know better than to cluck our tongues in judgment. There but by the grace of God... Indeed, statistics that have been swept under the rug take front and center in Teresa's book but with the warm, conversational tone indicative of Teresa's personal radio style.

"Noise" is a great opportunity to open dialogue between yourself and your children. Teresa and I are about the same age so when she shared the story of slipping a box of cereal onto the conveyor belt, during a grocery shopping trip with her mom, just so she could get the latest copy of Bobby Sherman's record (yes, record), I laughed out loud (lol, for those savvy parents of teens). While I won't give away the ending of the story I will use it to support my point that Teresa's book is a great way to open dialogue between parents and children. Why? Why not? What happened to the time when parents made the decisions and children obeyed, even if in protest? Why not make your teenager read a chapter of "Noise" every week and then sit and discuss it with him or her? If you can get past the rolling eyes, it might be a great way to seize control and also give your child some information to digest. If nothing else, it cannot hurt. And, as we are called to plant seeds, this book is sure to plant a veritable harvest.

Finally, I would suggest that "Noise" is a household `must have' because Teresa has ended her chapters with a great list of "Action Items." And if you've taken me up on the suggestion to integrate this book into your teenager's reading requirements, the action items become fully alive as both you and your child begin discussing things like the money-making motives and objectives behind advertising. You can be "on the lookout" together. You will be giving your family new eyes to see the world because, as Teresa points out, the answer isn't "off with its head," but to engage yourself and your family in an intelligent, wise way in which to encounter our everyday secular media. And if your children are younger, you are sure to appreciate these action items as a way to prepare your children for what's ahead.

No matter what, you will embrace all that Teresa shares in "Noise" because, as Teresa points out, the best defense is a good offense.

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Thank you Teresa.. God Bless!!!

Teresa's insight into the media blitz cannot be understated. Her experience behind the scenes at a Detroit news station can attest to this.
The simple test that I tell people to to become more aware of the day to day noise that surrounds them is to do is try shutting everything off for one day. Any Sunday would be nice. See if time crawls by. See if you feel ancy. See how many times you reach for the remote, phone, computer..... See how much you accomplish. See how much better you feel at the end of the day. If you can go a month or six months see things in movies or particular stations that you never noticed before. Things that will repulse you where as before you ignored.
Tony

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Almost perfect

PRO: This book articulates what many of us suspect but don't have the time or energy to fully explore: too much media ruins lives. Her strongest chapter "Are you strong enough?" discusses how our highest human faculty is the mind and it's reasoning capability. It basically discusses how reflection is a lost art. We try so hard to be distracted and entertained; the silence that breeds unity with God is lost. We as a nation have become content with letting the media THINK for us since we are too busy with everything else in the world. This book has some outstanding statistics as well. It is very well researched and documented. I also appreciated the proactive steps it includes in the back of each chapter on tangible ways people can moderate the use of media in their lives. Finally, this book is balanced in that Tomeo isn't trying to tell us to throw the TVs out the window. Good can come from technology and she highlights this point esp. with good quotes from the late Pope JP2.

CON: I wish she would have delved more into cell phone usage and the impact that's having on culture. It's like the huge elephant in the room that wasn't really addressed much.

I also think the music section left a little something to be desired. We all know rap is harmful. But she didn't do much to address other genres of music that can stray into sad or inappropriate messages like most R&B and some alternative music as well.

Finally, I think this book limited its universality by leaning too heavily on the Catholic perspective. I am a strong, practicing Catholic myself, but I could see the shortcomings in how other religious perspectives weren't really validated. She threw out the "Christian" term regarding music and performers but even that wasn't consistent. And she includes things like "Catholics need to make their voices heard" where she could've simply said "People who want to protect traditional morals" etc. As a Catholic, it all applied to me. But this book has such good information and insight that I'd hate to see it bypassed by a lot of people who may not relate to the religious theme so much. We all need to band together to beat this media monster. Not just Catholics or Christians... but all people who want to fight for the decency in their families.

All in all, I do recommend this book highly. And to the reviewer who commented on the politics of it, no such statements were made. Tomeo addresses abortion and euthanasia but she doesn't sit down and tell you how to vote on Social Security or anything. She simply discusses what everyone already knows: the media is "left of center", and she backs it up with facts too!

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inconsistent arguements

In the begining of the book the author states that media news sources are not reliable.Yet, later in the book she uses the news media reports to support another arguement.I found that odd.While I agree with the premise of too much noise in our lives I didn't find her resoning very convincining.

reviews: page 1, 2

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