An analysis of a pseudo-event: Operation Gridlock

In his text â€œThe Image,â€ Daniel Boorstin made a phenomenal observation. He claimed that the contemporary media environment is riddled with pseudo-events. Fundamentally, a pseudo-event is an occurrence designed to generate attention. These events usually appear spontaneous and natural, but they are, in fact, carefully and consciously orchestrated and planned to make an impression on public opinion. Usually, a pseudo-event can take a series of forms. Nevertheless, these events share four things or attributes in common; event, coverage, rationale, and reaction. The present paper monitors the news to identify an event and justify that it is indeed a pseudo-event focusing on the four attributes.

The identified event

After carefully monitoring the news, one event that attracted attention, and one that potentially fits the profile of a pseudo-event, is Operation Gridlock. According to Hutchinson (2020), a convoy of motorists lined up in the streets of Lansing to protest the governorâ€™s pandemic directive besides calling for the state leaders to allow small businesses to reopen so that the workers could get back to their workplaces. Therefore, kicking off at noon, the protestors assembled in downtown Lansing in their vehicles while honking horns. They were also waving American flags besides circling the capitol building. Suffice to state that the protest, which had been organized by a set of groups such as the Michigan Conservative Coalition, involved most of the protestors displaying signs reading â€œMy Freedom is Essentialâ€ and â€œImpeach Whitmer.â€

Some of the protestors were wearing red hats scripted â€œMake America Great Againâ€ and T-shirts that supported President Donald Trump. Furthermore, Hutchinson (2020) confers that a group of men that identified themselves as subjects of the Michigan Liberty Militia were walking up and down the sidewalk just outside the capitol building while carrying rifles. They informed the media that they were there to ensure that each person had the right to assemble peacefully. Another protestor informed the media that the Americans did not want the Constitution to be suspended for them to be safe. He also stated that safety was personal responsibility and that it was not necessary for authorities to impose the mandate on them (Hutchinson, 2020). The protests followed after Whitmer had imposed some of the strictest stay-at-home orders in the country. Part of this included limiting the number of customers that could enter essential stores to four for every 1,000 square feet.

Analysis of Operation Gridlock as a pseudo-event

Indeed, Operation Gridlock was a pseudo-event. Nevertheless, as identified in the introductory part of the paper, a pseudo-event is determined as such if it has the four necessary attributes, namely, event, coverage, rationale, and reaction. Hence, this section seeks to justify that Operation Gridlock was indeed a typical pseudo-event. Each attribute is taken in isolation, defined, and then applied to the event under focus to determine it was indeed a pseudo-event.

Event

According to Boorstin (1961), a pseudo-event is not spontaneous. Instead, such an event occurs because a well-defined individual planned, incited, or planted it. Hence, according to the author, a pseudo-event is not an occurrence that happens out of "nowhere" but is consciously orchestrated

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