Chapter 4, Real Time War

I was more hooked to the tv when September 11th happened versus the beginning of the Iraq war, but I can understand why news addicts can't pull themselves away. It's much easier to sit down and soak in a slideshow of images instead of reading a newspaper or searching online, and once you see some aspect of the war or human interest story that is fascinating, you want to hear more and more and more. Although after a while, the amount of information can become overwhelming. After a couple days of being hooked to the tv after September 11th, I realized that I was seeing the same images over and over again, and perhaps they started to lose meaning... It wasn't real enough for me anymore.

In October I went to visit a school outside of New York City and we went to Ground Zero where there were still remains of the building, cars covered in ash, and signs up looking for lost relatives. Even though I saw some of these images on tv, actually being there was a more genuine experience. When television attempts to re-create reality, such as with reality tv shows, and with the Iraq war, it's never going to be as good as the real experience, so why even try? Reality TV shows are edited to show only the most dramatic and interesting scenes, and the coverage of the war is edited to not show the more gruesome details, and to center around the action shots and the strength of our troops. If we are going to watch the news, and accept it for what it is, then that's reasonable, but if it's going to be a replacement for our own realities, then that's a problem.