TV’s Unreal Reality

In discussing the psychological impact of the Sept. 11 tragedy on our nation’s children, Robert Lee Hotz and Duke Helfand fail to adequately differentiate between impressions made by reality and impressions made via the “media-tization” of reality (“A Nation’s Children Forge a Shared Memory,” Dec. 23).

The writers’ recounting of 8-year-old Carlos Santiago drawing the destroyed World Trade Center along with a burning American flag suggests that the media’s powerful construction of the event, often sensational and political, has had more impact on children’s psyches than the actuality of the event.

In crediting television with an inherent dramatic power, the article exculpates media decision-makers regarding the ultimate relevance and beneficence of what has been shown and written in the news since Sept. 11.

Joshua Sperber

San Francisco