​McEntyre notes that 19th-century newspapers, a primary source of language for the American public, didn't have headlines, just "columns of print that left the reader to sort out what was important in the course of reading" (McEntyre 12). Such print facilitated critical reading and thinking, which fostered openness to ideas and nuanced thought. To increase its audience during the 20th century, however, the media added headlines that increasingly appealed to readers' emotions and told them what or how to think about the stories they announced. Twenty-first-century media built on that trend, shortening and sensationalizing articles in addition to lowering their reading level from 8th-grade to 4th-grade, "train[ing] readers to expect nothing more challenging" (McEntyre 11). While one could argue that simpler language made news accessible to a broader, more diverse audience, it also oversimplified coverage of--and therefore conversation about--complicated events and ideas while shifting readers' role from one of active evaluator to passive consumer. Audiences became increasingly inclined to believe whatever the media said was true at the same time the media increasingly engaged and sought to sway readers' strongest and most immediate emotional reactions to current events.

Social media, Twitter in particular, further simplified, sensationalized, and politicized language--and thereby the thoughts, relationships, and culture it shapes--by restricting coverage to hyperbolic soundbites that created a culture of constant outrage and a hostility toward anyone holding a different perspective than the one communicated. Twitter soundbites became catchphrases that spurred action, such as "silence is violence," which eroded language's meaning in an Orwellian manner by insisting that a neutral state that exists in nature (silence) is exactly the same as physical harm actively inflicted by choice (violence). Such inaccuracies primed individuals to expect and even practice violence at the slightest imagined provocation (McEntyre 46). To compete, news media adopted social media's format, creating an echo chamber effect (McEntyre 51). Journalists educated by institutions steeped in Postmodernism perpetuated the effect, pushing it further and deeper into the broader culture.

As happens with rapid, widespread, wholesale adherence to a philosophy, Postmodernism's push for theoretical deconstruction of language and everything related to it became actual deconstruction of language and everything related to it. Informed, thoughtful, theoretical deconstruction for evaluative purposes within the academic realm gave way to physical deconstruction of American institutions in the societal realm, as seen by movements to "defund the  police,"  whose proponents claimed simultaneously that they meant the phrase only figuratively and absolutely literally. False binaries replaced spectrums when it came to issues and political stances, such as "you either advocate for abolishing police or you actively uphold white supremacy." Phrases suggesting "you're either with us or against us"  dominated politics, social media, and everyday conversation at both ends of the political spectrum, not merely ignoring but replacing critical thinking with cognitive dissonance. Such false binaries eliminate the possibility that people can coexist by practicing respect for diverse ideas, experiences, worldviews, and the individuals who hold them--the very foundation on which a democracy rests.

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The 21st-century media format urges individuals to express every reaction and opinion to a vast audience immediately, increasing conflict and the potential for violence as the echo chamber encourages writer and reader to act on every reaction. The result of this Postmodernism attack on language is an American public more divided than ever, comprised of individuals who consider anyone holding a different perspective an enemy combatant. Evidence abounds in the form of Antifa "direct actions" in Oregon and Washington, the January 6th U.S. Capitol insurgence in Washington,  D.C.,  nationwide clashes between parents and K-12 school boards, and hate crimes that have spiked in urban areas like New York City since 2020.

McEntyre suggests that to change current trends, Americans must take more care with language and demand their media and political leaders do the same. She encourages readers to practice precision that "requires not only close and patient observation, but also daring imagination and what Keats called 'negative capability'--the capacity to dwell in paradox or ambiguity without straining after resolution. To inhabit, as it were, two dimensions or points of view at once, and calmly" (54). Only then can we repair America's frayed cultural fabric.

McEntyre's book is an essential read, not only for journalism students, but for anyone who wants to live in a world that upholds human complexity and diversity. It is also the basis on which this site's resources were evaluated and/or created to aid educators in teaching critical thinking, information/media literacy, and narrative analysis.

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