Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History / Edition 1

by Daniel Dayan, Elihu Katz

Overview

Constituting a new television genre, live broadcasts of “historic” events have become world rituals which, according to Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz, have the potential for transforming societies even as they transfix viewers around the globe. Analyzing such public spectacles as the Olympic games, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, John F. Kenndy’s funeral, the moon landing, and Pope John II’s visits to Poland, they offer an ethnography of how media events are scripted, negotiated, performed, celebrated, shamanized, and reviewed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674559561
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	03/15/1994
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Daniel Dayan is a Fellow of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.

Elihu Katz is Trustee Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvannia; Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Scientific Director of the Guttman Institute of Applied Social Research.

Table of Contents

Preface

Defining Media Events: High Holidays of Mass Communication

Scripting Media Events: Contest, Conquest, Coronation

Negotiating Media Events

Performing Media Events

Celebrating Media Events

Shamanizing Media Events

Reviewing Media Events

Appendix: Five Frames for Assessing the Effects of Media Events

Notes

References

Acknowledge

Index

Editorial Reviews

An important work that should be read by everyone in the media and cultural studies and who may be involved in the study of other modern institutions and political processes.

Contemporary Sociology - Eric Rothenbuhler

The publication of Media Events is itself a media event of great importance to scholars and professionals in broadcasting and electronic media.

Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media - Michael Real

Media Events is a feat of scholarship about a medium that tends to defy scholarship. It is a comprehensive, thoughtful, and original delineation of a phenomenon of live television as a powerful social force. This book marks a milestone in the understanding of how we are affected by television.

Daniel Schorr

Media Events is a feat of scholarship about a medium that tends to defy scholarship. It is a comprehensive, thoughtful, and original delineation of a phenomenon of live television as a powerful social force. This book marks a milestone in the understanding of how we are affected by television.
— Daniel Schorr

National Public Radio

The publication of the Media Eventsis itself a media event of great imporantance to scholars and professionals in broadcasting and electronic media.
— Michael Real

Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media

An imporant work that should be read by everyone in the media and culural studies and may involved in the study of other modern institutions and political processes.
— Eric Rothenbuhler

Contemporary Sociology

An ethnography of how such media events as the Olympic Games, the moon landing, Kennedy's funeral, and the royal wedding, are scripted, negotiated, performed, celebrated, shamanized, and reviewed. Drawing from the theories of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, shows how television can declare holidays and create history. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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