Fictional dramatic urgency is routinely confused with realistic portrayal

Evidence

One such device is the use of a split screen in order to present the show’s multiple plotlines and a version of “real time.” The most important of these techniques, however, is the “ticking time bomb scenario,” one of the show’s foundational plot devices. Agent Jack Bauer knows that a deadly bomb will be detonated within the next few hours; he therefore must make the difficult decision to torture a suspect in order to obtain the necessary information to disarm the bomb. The “real time” and ticking time bomb scenarios create an environment of immediate urgency. However, creating a sense of realism and a realistic portrayal are very distinct objectives; the ticking time bomb scenario as a symbol of the War on Terror might effectively create dramatic realism but is not necessarily realistic. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 292

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes ‘sense of realism’ from ‘realistic portrayal’ — a conceptual distinction useful beyond media studies.
• SEED: Essay angle: how narrative devices (ticking time bombs, split screens) manufacture consent by manufacturing urgency.
• XREF: connects to: Theater and real life are structurally indistinguishable rather than opposed — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 725