GoKawiilEssay Revives Boorstin's 'Pseudo-Event' Theory to Critique Modern News
A new essay examines how news has shifted from reporting natural events to manufacturing 'pseudo-events'—staged happenings like press conferences, interviews, and ribbon cuttings—a concept drawn from Daniel J. Boorstin's 1962 book The Image. The piece traces how editors and audience boredom jointly determine what counts as newsworthy, arguing that importance in media is often circularly defined by what gets covered.