Esse est percipi

The Argentine author-philosopher Jorge Luis Borges, who cut his teeth publishing not only in literary journals but also in newspapers, wrote several insightful passages about journalism. One was a comment by his character Eudoro Acevedo in the story "Utopia de un hombre que esta cansado." The character said:

Las imagenes y la letra impresa era mas reales que las cosas. Solo lo publicado era verdadero. Esse est percipi (ser es ser retratado) era el principio, el medio y el fin de nuestro singular concepto del mundo.

Roughly translated, it means that the printed word was more real than reality, and that no one exists unless they are depicted in the news.