In this book, Boorstin argues that America is built upon and runs on images and this has affected the way Americans view certain events, products, people, et cetera. With the rise of what Boorstin labels the Graphic Revolution, pseudo-events have taken over the place of spontaneous events. He outlines pseudo-events as planned events, produced specifically to be seen and reported on.
One example that Boorstin gives to prove how images have distorted the public’s expectations is the news. With the coming of the Graphic Revolution and the use of media, American news has transitioned from morning or afternoon news to a 24 hour news cycle. So, to please the public’s expectation of news, news organizations plant pseudo-events and merely by placing them in the news, make these events newsworthy.
Another example is through travel. People have gradually turned from being travelers to being tourists. Tourists expect to see and experience certain things when they travel away from their homes. Rather than being immersed in an active role of experiencing different cultures, tourists take a more passive role of observing. Travel has become a pseudo-event because the experiences tourists seek are usually planned now to insure that they have a good trip.
“The Image” has made me aware of how accustomed we are to pseudo-events and the expectations that have come out of the rise of pseudo-events. Specifically for traveling, it made me painfully aware of how tourists look and act when they’re traveling, including myself. We walk in herds, take pictures of everything, and clog up walking areas. We have gathered high expectations of foreign lands through the media and flock to places we think are important to see. The images we conjure up of places dictate where we go and what we do. I can see media literacy coming in play so we are able to separate pseudo-events from the real places.