'A Pseudo Event' feat. George W. Bush!

Bush delivering his speech, with the aid of a bull horn, to the workers of Ground Zero. The low angle shot empowers Bush.

Having been introduced to the subject of Media Discourse last week, we distinguished between a Genuine Event, a Media Event and a Pseudo Event. This week we will be focusing in more detail exclusively on Pseudo Events with reference to Daniel Boorstin's 'A Flood Of Pseudo Events.' To help illustrate Boorstin's theories I have chosen  George W. Bush's '9/11 Bullhorn Speech' as an example of a psuedo event.

Briefly just to recap, a genuine event is one that will occur regardless of whether the media takes note of them or not. Any media involvement will not have an effect on the story. A media event is one which probably would have taken place without media involvement but has since taken on new meaning. 
In the case of a media event, 
"Staging an event for a media audience and telling a story for the audience to follow is the main concern of such happenings"- Glenn Doyle.

A pseudo event is 'staged by the media'.
"They only happen to induce media coverage. They happen live, but are always media products which are altered by technical or dramaturgical means to create a difference between what happened on site and what is shown." - Glenn Doyle.
According to Daniel Boorstin, A pseudo-event is a happening that possesses the following characteristics,

1.  It is not spontaneous.
2.  It is planted primarily (not always exclusively) for the immediate purpose of being reported or reproduced.
3. Its relation to the underlying reality of the situation is ambiguous.
4. Usually it is intended to be self fulfilling prophecy.( a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to come true).

With that in mind this brings me to 'The Bullhorn Speech' by George W.Bush. It was september, 2001, three days after 9/11. The, then, President of the U.S.A George W. Bush arrived at the wreckage scene of ground zero to deliver, with the aid of the bullhorn, a message of encouragement to the volunteers working on site. Bush delivers his speech on top of a mound of rubble with an arm around a Chief Fireman. He is surrounded by a crowd who, through-out the speech, appear un-able to hear what the President is saying. At the climax of his speech Bush delivers the line "I can hear you, the world can hear you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." There is rapturous applause and chants of 'U.S.A' as Bush concludes his speech, exclaiming 'God Bless America'.

This event has all the characteristics of a Pseudo Event. For starters the President is dressed in plain clothes as opposed to a suit, this may be done deliberately to show he is a man of the people. He gives his speech standing on a mound above all the crowd. Although it may be argued that this was done so that people could see him, the mound is not that high. It does however, add enough height for the camera man to capture an empowering shot of President Bush. The camera is looking up at the president initially capturing a mid-shot of Bush and the fireman before zooming out to show a surrounding crowd in the foreground and remains of the twin towers in the background. In the distance is an american flag wrapped around a pole. The shot is perfectly composed to set the scene. The low camera angle creates an almost ' Demi-God like' shot reminiscent to Leni Riefenstahl's filming of the Nuremberg Rallies.

Riefenstahl's filming was propaganda however and it is important to note that pseudo events must be distinguished from propoganda.

'A pseudo-event is an ambiguous truth, propaganda feeds on our willingness to be inflamed. Pseudo-events appeal to our duty to be educated, propaganda appeals to our desire to be aroused. While propaganda substitutes opinion for facts, psuedo-events are synthetic facts which move people indirectly.' -Daniel Boorstin (1961).

The fact of the matter is, 9/11 happened and Bush was responding to the event. Boorstin writes that "Propaganda -- as prescribed, say , by Hitler in Mein Kampf -is information intentionally biased." Bush technically did not say anything inaccurate in his speech. The world was watching, courtesy of large scale media coverage, and if there was any intentional bias in his speech, the feeling was reflected mutually across the globe and the event was unlikely to have changed the opinions of its demographic, America and the western world. As Boorstin eloquently phrases it "We cannot say that we are being fooled. It is not entirely inaccurate to say that we are being 'informed'."

"What happens on television will overshadow what happens off television."- Daniel Boorstin, (1961).

The above statement couldn't be more fitting when returning to the 'Bullhorn Speech' example. The most alarming characteristic which mirrors that of a pseudo event, is what we see in the footage of Bush's speech as opposed to what we hear. 

For starters all the cheering appears to be off camera. When the cameraman zooms out just before Bush deliverers his 'I can hear you' line, it reveals a contextual crowd made up of firemen and volunteers. The crowd also consists of a perimeter of security guards surrounding the president. This crowd explains the ecstatically loud cheering. However if we examine the footage whenever there is cheering, there is only ever a small handful of people actually engaging in the act. Given the sheer scale of the tragedy and the exhaustion of the workers, it is hard to believe that the President would be greeted by such rapturous roars of approval. The widespread muted applause which we see in the picture is more fitting.

I couldn't help but notice the rise in audio levels shortly before Bush reaches the pinnacle of his address to the workers. This occurs in the video attached at approx. 28-33 seconds. The levels seem to peak more from then on and we can hear Bush better than previous to this occurrence. The rapturous applause does not fit with footage and the fact that we cannot see where the noise is coming from suggests that the shots are strategically framed. Bush's audio levels dip again towards the end of the footage shortly before a chant from the crowd of 'God Bless America.'

This seems like a well planned 'staged media event'. Although it is conceivable to expect Bush to visit the workers, I find it hard to believe he would have stood up and gave a speech in such a manner if the media were not involved. The fact that there is a perimeter of security guards around the event suggests that it was planned out in advance, staged.

Boorstin writes of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

"On his production team, in addition to newspapermen, there were poets, playwrights, and a regular corps of speech writers." upon viewing the closing close up shot of president Bush holding an american flag aloft, I would suggest that he too had a similar team which helped to contribute to this pseudo event. I will finish with the subject of the speech, the bullhorn speaker used by President Bush. It suggests that the event was spontaneous. 

However, I believe if Bush were to have such a production team, the bullhorn would have been used for dramatic effect. All the media surrounding the event would have had aptly suitable equipment to ensure the crowd could hear the president properly and yet the bullhorn was first preference. Such a prop enabled for a self fulfilling title 'The Bullhorn Speech,' and dramatised the occasion by prompting the 'I can hear you . . .' line.
The fact that media were aloud into such a hazardous environment is also something that leads me to believe this was a pseudo event.

This event in turn triggered a snowball effect of pseudo events, as media reporting of the event made it an iconic symbol of the 9/11 aftermath.

"in America, illusions and fabrications had become a dominate force within society."- Daniel Boorstin.