Susan Sontag looks at the depiction of the cruelties of modern life on the evening news, along with the medias role in shaping the viewers perception of events. As, thanks to television, atrocity becomes commonplace, does the viewer become anesthetized to it? Does it lead to greater violence? How exactly are people affected by their inability to do anything about what they see? And how does this knowledge affect the way they conduct their daily lives? As Sontag asks these questions, she brings up some of the issues she tacked in her classic work ON PHOTOGRAPHY (1977), exploring them anew (and sometimes with different conclusions) in light of events in Bosnia, Rwanda, Palestine, and New York City. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.