Pseudo‐Events and Photo Opportunities | CU Experts

Overview

This entry provides an introduction to Daniel J. Boorstin's concept of the pseudo‐event. The entry details the intersection of journalists' news work and pseudo‐events, details how scholars have studied the concept, and examines potential future research of the subject. Boorstin defined pseudo‐events as planned occurrences such as press conferences and photo opportunities staged for the primary purpose of generating news coverage. Because these types of events are staged, they have an uncertain relationship with reality, which means that when journalists cover them, they are potentially communicating inaccuracies to the public. This entry identifies both the positive and negative aspects, in terms of news content, of journalists covering pseudo‐events.