Media and Current Events The media can impact
current events. As a graduate student at Berkeley in the 1960s, I remember
experiencing the events related to the People’s park that were occurring on
campus. Some of these events were given national media coverage in the press and
on TV. I found it in teresting to compare my impressions of what was going on
with perceptions obtained from the news media. I could begin to see events of
that time feed on news coverage. This also provided me with some healthy
insights into the distinctions between these realities.
Electronic media are having a greater impact on the people’s lives every
day. People gather more and more of their impressions from representations.
Television and telephone communications are linking people to a global village,
or what one writer calls the electronic city. Consider the information that
television brings into your home every day. Consider also the contact you have
with others simply by using telephone. These media extend your consciousness and
your contact. For example, the video coverage of the 1989 San Francisco
earthquake focused on “live action” such as the fires or the rescue efforts.
This gave the viewer the impression of total disaster. Television coverage of
the Iraqi War also developed an immediacy. CNN reported events as they happened.
This coverage was distributed worldwide. Although most people were far away from
these events, they developed some perception of these realities.
In 1992, many people watched in horror as riots broke out on a sad
Wednesday evening in Los Angeles, seemingly fed by video coverage from
helicopters. This event was triggered by the verdict (裁定) in the Rodney King
beating. We are now in an age where the public can have access to information
that enables it to make its own judgements, and most people, who had seen the
video of this beating, could not understand how the jury (陪审团) was able to
acquit (宣布无罪) the policemen involved. Media coverage of events as they occur
also provides powerful feedback that influences events. This can have harmful
results, as it seemed on that Wednesday night in Los Angeles. By Friday night
the public got to see Rodney King on television pleading, “Can we all get
along” By Saturday, television seemed to provide positive feedback as the Los
Angeles riot turned out into a rally for peace. The television showed thousands
of people marching with banners and cleaning tools. Because of that, many more
people turned out to join the peaceful event they saw unfolding (展开) on
television. The real healing, of course, will take much longer, but electronic
media will continue to be a part of that
process.
It can be inferred from the passage that______.
A．media coverage of events as they occur can have either good or had results B．most people who had seen the video of the Rodney King beating agree with the verdict of the jury C．the 1992 Los Angeles riots lasted a whole week D．Rodney King seemed very angry when he appeared on television on Friday
