White Noise contains the message that the amount of television coverage determines the importance of an event. An example of this is when the refugees from the toxic cloud feel let down when they only rate "fifty-two words by actual count- no film footage, no live report" (161) in the news. A man ponders, "Isn't fear news?" (161). Jack's ex-wife, Tweedy, is shocked to find that the passengers of a plane which almost crashed "went through all that for nothing" since "there is no media in Iron City" (92). To the characters in the novel, only media coverage brings an event into existence.

Television shapes the characters' behavior in White Noise. During the "airborne toxic event", the Gladney family attempts to keep up with the currently reported symptoms caused by the event. The symptoms that Steffie and Denise suffer from during the

Murray, a professor of popular culture, offers a altered outlook on television, unlike his students who refer to it as another form of junk mail. His belief is that television is only a problem if "you've forgotten how to look and listen" (50). Television, he claims, provides "incredible amounts of data (50)" in our lives. Murray asserts that television has a positive effect on people only if the viewer feels as if he is experiencing reality unique to his own thoughts and feelings rather than what the TV tells him to believe.

toxic spill are forgotten immediately after they are told by the television that they should be experiencing the effects of "deja vu". The submissive obeying of the citizens of Blacksmith illustrates the controlling power of the television.

The loss of reality is another negative effect television is responsible for. This is best seen in the example where the Gladney family comes across Babette's face on TV, as the local station is televising her posture class. At the sight of her, Jack and the children are immediately speechless and confused. They feel that the short-lived image has been somehow transferred to Babette. Jack states, "she was shining a light on us, she was coming into being, endlessly being formed and reformed as the muscles in her face worked at smiling and speaking, as the electronic dots swarmed" (104). The non-permanence of her image on television also emphasizes Babette's own mortality. At first Jack wonders whether he is watching "her spirit, her secret self, some two-dimensional facsimile released by the power of technology" (104). To her family, Babette appears "distanced, sealed off, timeless" (104), taking on the characteristics of the television.

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Approximate Word count = 1159
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)