95 Million People Watched "The Chase"

My first and one of my most memorable mediated experiences happened on June 17, 1994. I was only 10 years old at the time. My dad was then and still is a serious Knicks fan and that year our team had made it to the finals. This series was huge! The NY Knicks going head to head with the Houston Rockets which was just another way of saying Patrick Ewing vs. Hakeem Olajuwon. Our night started out like every other game night during this series. It was Game 5 so my dad and I were glued to the TV. My mom was talking on the phone and my little sister was sitting on the floor right in front of us playing with her toys. We, like so many other basketball fans, had no idea that our game was about to be interrupted.

I can’t even remember what quarter we were in when it happened but what I do remember is that all of a sudden we were watching a car chase. NBC split the screen between the game and live footage of the LAPD chasing a white Bronco. My dad immediately called my mom. She hung up the phone and came to join us on the couch. I had no clue what was going on. But I felt the mood change in the room. My parents looked so serious and I just wanted to have fun and go back to focusing on the game.

We couldn’t even hear what was going on with the game anymore. All I could hear was this guy talking about OJ Simpson. I know now that what I was listening to was the voice of Tom Brokaw. I didn’t know nor did I care who OJ was back then and I couldn’t understand why watching his car was more important than the NBA finals. But I could tell that my parents did – so I asked them. My mom started to explain that a few days before OJ’s ex-wife and a friend of hers were killed at her home and that OJ was a suspect. That’s all I needed to hear… All of a sudden it was like I was watching a movie, anxious to see what would happen next.

We changed the channel from NBC to ABC where Barbara Walters and Peter Jennings were covering the chase. It all seemed so crazy to me. They were giving minute-to-minute details on where the vehicle was and where it was headed. I could see people on the streets with signs telling him to keep going or to turn himself in. I didn’t know anything about this guy and yet there I was with my eyes super-glued to the screen. I remember thinking “what’s going to happen to him?” Some of the people calling in to ABC were saying that he had a gun and that he was going to kill himself. But the chase ended with him returning to his home and ultimately turning himself in.

I didn’t know much about OJ Simpson when the night started out. But I could tell by how much attention this car chase was getting that whatever was going on was BIG. To this day, the OJ Trial is considered to be “the most publicized criminal trial in American history”. For months the media covered the trial. All regular daytime programming was replaced with the court proceedings. I remember this because I used to watch All My Children with my cousins when I wasn’t in school but during that time it was all about OJ. The trial lasted 9 months, which makes it the longest jury trial in the history of California. I really think the media had the whole country hooked. So much so that verdict was announced on the loud speakers at school. The coverage of the car chase, trial and verdict is mass communication at it’s finest. The networks decided that this was important.

Looking back, I know that these events had no direct impact on my life but I remember them like they were yesterday and I think that says a lot about the power of the media… Their decision to make this News made me care. Unfortunately, things like this happen everyday. This was not the first murder trial and it won't be the last. What makes it different is the attention it received from the media, which is a perfect example of the publicity model. Also, the extensive coverage of the events surrounding this case supports the critical/cultural approach. We have to ask ourselves if the car chase and trial would have been so heavily publicized if Nicole was black.