A Reader's Guide:

Within the novel White Noise by Don Delillo, there is a strong, influential theme of media. The characters deal with this media in their own unique ways, however a main theme of consuming the media withoiut thinking is found. Through the social media platform, Tumblr, we have created a reader's guide to this thime of media. Understanding media through media! Enjoy:)

Ultimately, a catastrophe like the airborne toxic event caused an awaking to reality, but led to a deeper frustration of the media culture. It's as if we are stuck in this cycle of incessant bombardment of information. How will Jack get out? How will you and I get out? When can we get out of this?

Don Delillo and Aldous Huxley wrote these books as a satire for the critique of society. I think both of them would be shocked to see how accurate their books fit into modern society today. The medium is truly the massage; Delillo and Huxley would be mesmerized to see how the media culture impacts modern society today.

This article about White Noise is by Mark Conroy. The main topic of the article is the authority held by Jack and his attempt to gain authority. He talks about how the parents, Jack and Babette, do not act with authority like parents should.  They do not share their wisdom with their children but rather leave it all up to the television to do the teaching.  He talks about how the characters think they need to depend on the tabloids and technology to survive but in reality, it's hurting them.  He also talks about Jack's fear for death and he that his chances of dying go down if he kills someone else hence the attack on Willie Mink. He feels he has authority if he commits such an act.  Conroy also states that the fear of death bring Jack and Babette together because that is something they have in common. They think that by taking Dylar that they showing that they have authority over their fears and lives. Jack tries to act smart to prove that he has authority but it is basically shown that he has none.  The thirst he has for power is shown through his love for studying Hitler's life.  He strives for power and authority in any way that he can get it.

This is a similar example to the one in the book when the Airborne Toxic Event took place and the radio kept on telling the people false information and scaring them.  People either did not know what to believe or they believed everything they heard.  The radio made the event more stressful because people kept thinking that they had the symptoms that the radio mentioned.  People were unable to stay calm and collected.  The radio kind of made the event a bigger deal than it needed to be.  This is the power of the radio and the media in general.

This picture reminded me of when Babette would force the family to watch television together at least once a week in hopes of getting rid of the problem which Babette refers to as "narcotic undertow and eerie diseased brain-sucking power." She believed the had the power to control people's minds and thought this would help solve the problem but in reality, it probably gave the television more power.  This picture also represents just television watching in general and the way media can pull one in.  The Gladney's spent a good amount time watching television and tried to learn and get their information from it.  Their lives almost depended on the television and also the radio. 

The characters of White Noise should seriously take this brotip into consideration.  Everything they hear, they believe and then turn it into a bigger problem than it should be.  When the Airborne Toxic Event takes place, they turn to the radio to be their main source of information. This is okay to some extent but it starts to really confuse them.  The radio keeps on changing it's mind on what the symptoms will be if one is infected and each time, the characters, specifically the Gladneys', freak out and convince themselves that they are going to die or that they have these symptoms.  If they would just use their brains for a little bit and not worry as much what the radio says, they would be better off. This example shows how the media can influence people and make them believe things that may not be true.  Don't believe everything you hear! Get the real information and truth first.

Commercials can get in our memories so easy and sometimes we do not even realize it.  It is crazy to think that we can remember jingles from commercials but have a hard time remembering items for school.  It's all in the way it is presented.  Media has a way of catching our attention and staying in our brains.  This video is a commercial for National American University. It used to be on all the time and almost everyone knew the song.  The crazy thing is that most people still know the song even though it has been a while since it has been on.  It had that big of an effect on people's brains and memory that I feel like I will never forget it.  This reminded me of when Steffie repeats car commercials in her sleep.  She says the phrase in the same voice as the commercial just like people sing the song the exact same way it is sung in the National American University commercial.

*I have the book as an iBook on my phone so that is why the page number is so high

This picture shows how the media has the public under control. In the novel the characters discuss how the shooter heard voices on the T.V. The important part of this is that the voices were telling him to go down in history. This shows how the media has influence over the characters. The way they describe the voices in the television as “total strangers”  make them appear to be dark ominous people with bad intentions therefore portraying media as a medium of bad intentions. The characters blame the media for the shooters actions instead of the actual shooter himself. 

The author of this scholarly article is Arthur M. Saltzman who is a Professor of English at Missouri Southern State College. He has published many books on White Noise  and on other American Fiction. Tied to the idea of media culture this article discusses how the protagonist, Jack, must find his way through the “white noise” that is his life. This article is intended for those looking to find out more about the writing process of Don DeLillo. It discusses how in White Noise there is always information and lots of it. However this is a flood of the same information. This is seen throughout the novel through Jack’s life. Arthur comments on how this flood of information disarms the figures in the novel and makes them vulnerable to submitting to the fear of death. This is tied to media culture because this desensitation and flood of information comes from the constant flow of media through advertisements, tabloid headlines and bureaucratic euphemisms. 

After Alfonse discusses how media is a constant flow of information that the public disregards and is desensitized to, Murray begins to talk about television media. He discusses how people have forgotten how to collect data. In other words they believe whatever they see on the television. The problem with this is represented in this picture. The problem is that the media may not always be right or it may be skewed. If people have forgotten how to collect their own data media will have taken over and stolen the ability for people to think for themselves. Murray even goes as far to discuss how peoples brains and even nervous systems have grown weary. This picture connects because even if what they see is something as serious as a murder it may not have an effect on them.

This is a very interesting section in regards to the way the media affects the characters of this novel. This section is where Jack sits down with Alfonse at lunch and discusses why the news is important to the public. This topic is brought up because Jack and his family have just spent the last few days in front of the television watching catastrophes around the world. The first thing that I found so interesting was that as Jack introduces Alfonse he makes him appear to be a very smart and credible source to the information he is about to provide. Jack explains that Alfonse, “knew four languages, had a photographic memory and did complex mathematics in his head.” By saying this Jack is telling the reader that Alfonse can be trusted with what he has to say. Jack starts the conversation off by asking Alfonse, “Why is it, Alfonse, that decent well-meaning and responsible people find themselves intrigued by catastrophe when they see it on television?” At first glance I did not understand why Jack added the part about “decent well-meaning and responsible people” but as I read it closer I realized that Jack is trying to cover his own skin because he himself was one of the people enthralled with the catastrophe. Alfonse’s answer is where we see the effect of the media on the characters. Alfonse explains that the flow of information is constant so the public becomes accustomed to it. Only a catastrophe can break the constant flow of information. After reading it again the reader can sense the lack of sincerity that Alfonse is speaking with. It is almost as if he is numb the catastrophe yet understands why and how he became numb to the news and media. In total, after taking a closer look at this section it is clear that media is a flow of information to the characters only to be broken by catastrophe, which is a sad situation to be in. 

Has Don DeLillo's supermarket satire, White Noise, passed its own use-by date? Matthew Packer a PhD candidate in American Literature at West Virginia University says, critic Dana Phillips suggests that the work's contribution to our understanding of postmodernism has been thoroughly examined. His claim that critics have mined the novel of its slogans and readings confirms a widespread impression the novel is a resource all but depleted. A feeling of belatedness marks the commentary, as though White Noise now has become like its own "most photographed barn in America" (12). This article focuses around the mimesis of the characters in the novel and how among the novel's most stirring media moments are not the "white noise," but the occasions when characters imitate, consciously or instinctively, models and performances simply furnished by the media. The article is largely focused not on how the “white noise” of the novel goes unnoticed by Jack and his family, but rather how the characters are images of violence and the strange religious awe of the book goes unseen to most people.

In Chapter 21 in White Noise titled "The Airborne Toxic Event," Babette tells Jack that the girls are complaining of sweaty palms, which was said to the the first symptom of the Nyodene D that spilled into the air. After Heinrich is listening to the radio he tells them that there has been a correction and that they should real nauseated if they are being affected, and so they do. After a little while longer, the radio is telling of new symptoms of heart palpitations and a sense of deja vu instead of nausea. As the day continues, the symptoms of Nyodene D change again to coma, convulsions, and miscarriage and the girls seem to have each new symptom as it changes. The real question is, are the girls really being affected by Nyodene D, or is the voice on the radio having a powerful effect on them? The truth is, Jack is worried about Steffie and Denise and cant figure out if the radio is influencing them to feel the way they do or if they are really being affected. But what he doesn't know is that the girls are really following the authority of the radio when they complain about their symptoms, trusting the voices of the media over their own sensations.

This video is much more than just a tribute to the Detroit dance scene. The lyrics talk about this "white noise, just noise" that is repeated over and over. Throughout the video we hear the same beat played throughout the song which seems to be catching until we eventually just tune it out in the end. The lyrics continue, "I'm hearing static, you're like an automatic, You just wanna keep me on repeat..." The white noise in the song is very similar to the book when the noise we hear we eventually just tune out and hear static over and over.

(Close Reading)