Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History

by Dayan

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.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1992

Reviews

[Robert Hopcke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Came upon this as part of a translation I was doing on Pope Francis's communication style and found it surprisingly relevant, given its 1992 date

[zahra parsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting book - i picked it out of a list given by my prof for my paper for my propaganda class. It was published around 1992 and a lot of its descriptions of TV broadcasts specifically are obviously no longer super relevant. However, I think it’s interesting to look at it in contrast with how we receive information on world events today. I wrote this in my paper, but it kind of coincides with the idea of vertical vs horizontal propaganda that we read about in our main book for the class. What Katz and Elihu describe is vertical propaganda, where it is spread from the top down by a higher authority. They described how media events and the way they were broadcasted were controlled very centrally by one institution, in order to reinforce the legitimacy of that institution. For example, certain elements of the broadcast of the Royal Wedding, like the narration from journalists and the archbishop’s speech, tried to paint it as “relatable” to the common man, essentially to cover up the fact that they were throwing this huge, lavish wedding while many Brits were suffering because of the economic crisis. They also used it to try to reinforce family values and religion. This clearly exemplifies vertical propaganda by a large and powerful institution, which was facilitated by their central control over the framing and broadcast of the event. Now, it’s very different because of the presence of social media. It’s much harder for one party to control the narrative on an event, because anyone can say anything they want and it’s accessible to a large audience. However, this means that more people are able to contribute to the spread of different types of propaganda - this is horizontal propaganda. A lot of the journal reviews mentioned this transition as well. I also thought it was interesting to read about how media events form and profit off of mass societies, which we talked about in class as well, and essentially how participating in them removes your individuality and places you in a liminal space.


also it’s so much easier to write about this in english than in french lol

[Mfalco65 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dayan is a brilliant mind and this is a pioneering work about the role of media events in our lives.