Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how evaluating art and entertainment through the lens of the protonorm of humanness contradicts neoliberalism and can help both the producers and consumers of this symbolic media content better understand its importance for public life. It deals with the new media technologies, the focus of Michael Bugeja’s essay. The book reviews the way philosophers have analyzed the nature of the human animal and its vast symbolic capacity. It is through symbols that people build community, understand and confuse one another, live out their morality, and form political and social networks. Painter considers social responsibility theory the most adequate ethical framework for entertainment programming, and for understanding the intersections of humor and news, and journalism and cinema.