When you are accessing an event in the real world you make all the judgments about its size and scope on your own. You focus on the activity that attracts your interests. And then you move in for a closer look when your curiosity compels it. You run toward the action or walk away depending on your impression of the intensity. You are in complete control of what you are seeing and how much significance you see in the situation.
However, when television arrives on the scene it does all that for you. The producer/director defines the size of your universe and where you will focus your attention… and also has the tools to make it as much of a drama as he or she wishes. Television looks real, but it probably is not what you would have seen if you were there. It always has an “author” who determines exactly what you see and how you see it.
The recent protests in Missouri raise some very interesting questions: If the television cameras just didn’t show up would the demonstration have happened at all? If so, what kind of protest would it have been? Would the most militant activists still have burned down those businesses?
What is the role of the news media in situations like this? Is this a time to under play the drama? Does the incredible number of journalists, cameras, and satellite trucks influence the size and intensity of violence? Would this have been an international story with demonstrations all over the world if it was not for round the clock cable news coverage? The police brutality issue is important, but could the violence have been minimized?
Let’s face it, everything from news events to football games is becoming a television program. And many people these days admit they would rather watch football on television than crowd into a stadium. It’s easier to see and follow. And television adds to the drama.
And so it goes with news events. The more we convert reality to television, the more we are creating a whole new reality… one that is shaped for us by others. And those “others” are skilled at enhancing the drama.
Make no mistake. Television allows you to see it with your own eyes, so it looks real. But television makes its own reality. And it is very important for all of us to be aware of it.
Larry D. Lauer 
Brilliant comment. Does provide an important perspective. Life does seem to be more and more defined by TV. I always marvel at football stadiums with the big screens and how people get so excited when they are suddenly on the screens, and this is closed circuit for those of us in the stands! As for Ferguson, it is such a tragedy and so wrong in many ways. It reminds me of Kent State. You don’t throw rocks at people carrying guns, especially undisciplined National Guard troops. You don’t punch a policeman and make a move toward his revolver and expect a good result. The situation could have been handled differently, but if the guy was white it probably would have had the same outcome. There are a lot of things that could have been done differently and probably will in the future, but burning down the businesses of people–some who were also black–achieved nothing other than bring attention to a coterie of organizers bent on energizing a mob for the purpose of national TV. Two years from now Ferguson will be a footnote, and the young black man will be another footnote at best, but what will change? I got carried away. You made an excellent point.