Lingmiao's Blog

This article mainly talks about the way in which TV news reconstructs racial inequality as social order based on the theories of Baudrillard and of Hall via two videotapes – Rodey King and Reginald Denny. The author found both of theories have limitation, but together they provide a spectacle way of examining and explaining two videos. Author agree with part of Baudrillard’s theory that the reduplication of two “hyperreal” news is a stimulation which reinforces dominant power structures “racism”. The repetition of videos of Rodey King and Reginald Denny created the illusion of sequential order. On the other hands, author acclaims Hall’s theory that the seduction of the spectacle and the implosion of meaning lead us to the preferred readings. The preferred reading of Rodey King is that the men against man or the violence of the group against individual which encourages moral indignation at the brutality. As for the Reginald Denny, the preferred reading is encoded by newscasters’ rhetorical framework. The skin color as a signifier is mistaken for the code it conventionally signifies – racism. Encoded texts limit the realm of possible readings. Together, these video simulations of racism distracted and diverted audiences’ attention from institutional and inferential racism. Consent culminated from silence.