A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

pseudo-events such as Children in Need. A pseudo-event has a number of closely-related and
self-validating characteristics:
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1. It is not spontaneous: it has been planned or spun in advance
2. It is produced, from the beginning, in order to be reported or reproduced
3. Its relation to any underlying concept of reality is unclear
4. It is an essentially tautological phenomenon
(Taylor and Harris, 2008:117)
Children in Need and related pseudo-events actively undermine the identification of
disability as an issue of discrimination and oppression by ensuring that the whole business of
supporting disabled people is seen as fun. Focus is interspersed between the „madcap antics‟
of celebrities who have „selflessly‟ given up their time to get involved and heart-rending
images of tragic disabled children who will benefit from monies raised. Paul Taylor and Jan
Harris contend that reportage of human interest stories within pseudo-events relates:
more to the motivations and the psychological contexts surrounding the actors
involved in various pseudo-events, rather than any actual substantive
significance to the events themselves (Taylor and Harris, 2008:117).
Focus is directed at emotional aspects of pseudo-events without any attempt to address the
issues in a political context. To begin this would spoil the enjoyment of it all and, as Neil
Postman has pointed out:
Entertainment is the supra-ideology of television. No matter what is depicted or from
what point of view, the overarching assumption is that it is there for our amusement
and pleasure (Postman, 2006:87).
Saturation media coverage of pseudo-events, reminding us of their own importance, ensures
they are regarded as important. The real significance of events like Children in Need is that
they confirm for individuals the mythical national family made up of other individuals like
themselves who care. Taylor and Harris comment that:
The self-referential media community that decides the newsworthiness of items is
reinforced by a cultural environment in which knowledge of pseudo-events