Postman and Powers' "The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures" is an informative piece bent on preparing TV news viewer to "come with a prepared mind - information, opinions, a sense of proportion, an articulate value system" in order to not be mislead of the picture show the news has become. When it comes to the actual language used in this TV news broadcasts, they warn that "the viewer must never assume that the words spoken on a television news show are exactly what happened. Since there are so many alternative ways of describing what happened, the viewer must be on guard against assuming that he or she has hear 'the absolute truth.'" Pictures, both moving and non-moving, are treated with the same detailed analysis. According to the authors, individual pictures are the most basic form of communication, and can only be used to "speak in particularities", while videos or pictures in succession with the accompaniment of sound and music are able to "present emotions and rudimentary ideas" through their juxtaposition of different stimuli. However, actual words are the only medium through which all the pictures, ideas and emotions can be put into context and made comprehensible, or even given a specific time frame to reference them by.
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