Chapter 1 - Section IV and V Summary and Analysis

Section IV begins with Boorstin's assertion that the influx of pseudo-events has caused the confusion of participant and viewer roles and that both now exist simultaneously. He goes on to discuss the formation of the "leak" as a communication device for government officials. This practice, Boorstin states, leads almost invariably to the creation of more pseudo-events. He gives an example from the 1950s, in which a story about the imminent attack of the Chinese on a group of islands was printed and then retracted a few days later. The first story was a pseudo-event because was printed on the basis of one admiral's opinion, taken out of context, and which was not even generally shared. The second story was also a pseudo-event because its existence was based entirely on the presence...