Theorising Global Media Events: Cognition, Emotions and Performances

2012

While a convincing set of arguments exist in favor of the integrative role of media in contemporary societies, there remains suspicions based on the relative nature of what counts as ‘common values’ and for whom. In this paper I delineate some of the key problems related to matters of mediated social solidarity, as instigated by Dayan and Katz’s famous neo-Durkheimian perspective of ‘media events, ’ the exceptional gatherings produced by live media coverage of events like ‘contests, conquests and coronations’, which, arguably, interrupt routine and affirm social cohesion. I Review some of the relevant literature in the field, with a brief case study of the homecoming of Croatian Winter Olympic 2002 winner Janica Kostelic. I show that, in the context of the proliferation of new media and global broadcasting, media events should be understood more modestly as momentary encounters with media’s representation of cohesion, whereby actual solidarity remains contingent upon the interdiscur...

Studies in Visual Communication, 1980

Critics of broadcasting argue that it has robbed society of the sense of occasion. People used to dress up to go out, the critics say, and now they stay in to watch television only half-dressed and half-awake. The arts that brought people togetherwhether popular or highbrow-were associated with time and place and community, marking the passing of seasons, the boundaries between sacred and secular, and the structure of society. Now television provides culture nonstop, with nothing more than station breaks and commercials to frame an experience in time, and only the living room and the family to frame it spatially and socially. The dim awareness that everybody else is viewing the same programs surely does something to hold society together, but the sense of occasion-especially that of communal occasion-has been dulled. This is not a judgment on the quality of television programs, it must be emphasized, but on their ubiquity. Like all generalizations about the atomizing, secularizing, and tranquilizing effects of broadcasting, this one too deserves more careful formulation. It is unlikely, first of all, that the media alone are to blame for the decline of the folk arts; all the pressures of modernization have had a share. 2 Moreover, the professional performing arts seem to be flourishing; some people do go out. 3 And as for occasions, the media are often at their best on holidays, such as Independence Day or Christmas, when high standards of performance are combined with a sense of festivity and a nostalgia for tradition. 4 There is another sense, too, in which the media break the sun-never-sets pattern which they themselves have created. This history of broadcasting is punctuated with a series of programs which are so memorable that they captivated the attention of a nation or of the world. People dressed up to see them, and invited their friends to join them in listening or viewing. The tenth anniversary of the moon landing brings this genre of broadcasting to mind. Generically, the broadcasts are known as media events-though that is an ambiguous and overworked term. I call them the "high holidays" of the media. Each of them, for a brief moment, restored the sense of occasion to a society or to the world, and some of them may have had lasting effects. I should like to recall these events, and to discuss them in this paper. They include the moon landings; the visit of Sadat to Jerusalem; the weekend of mourning following the assassination of Kennedy; the coronation of Elizabeth II; the presidential debates of 1960 and 1976; and certain sporting events. 5 Each nation will have its own list, although the number of such events is remarkably small. Occasionally, we get a glimpse of the potential of such an event which is denied us: the visit of Pope John Paul II to Poland, for example, or the Moscow Olympics.

Television & New Media, 2017

Journal of Communications, 2007

We sense a retreat from the genres of "media events" (Dayan and Katz, 1992)--the ceremonial Contests, Conquests and Coronations that punctuated television's first 50 years ---and a corresponding rise in the live broadcasting of disruptive events such as Disaster, Terror and War. We believe that cynicism, disenchantment and segmentation are undermining attention to ceremonial events, while the mobility and ubiquity of television technology, together with the downgrading of scheduled programming, provide ready access to disruption. If ceremonial events may be characterized as "coproductions" of broadcasters and establishments, then disruptive events may be characterized as "co-productions" of broadcasters and anti-establishment agencies, i.e. the perpetrators of disruption.

In a journal article entitled "'No More Peace!': How Disaster, Terror and War Have Upstaged Media Events" (2007), Elihu Katz and Tamar Liebes offered a substantial revision of Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History (Dayan & Katz, 1992). Katz and Liebes included " dark " events in the " media events " concept, distinguishing unexpected, disruptive events from the carefully scripted, integrative events that had been the sole focus of Media Events. They also claimed that disruptive events – like disaster, terror and war – have in fact upstaged more classical media events. In contrast, in this chapter I argue that ceremonial media events-as originally conceptualized by Dayan and Katz in the nineties-are still essential and powerful features of our social lives. First, I present an overview of the " pessimistic turn " of media events research and provide my criticism of it. Second, I discuss three contemporary case studies from three national contexts: the Obama inauguration (2009), the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton (2011) and the most recent World Cup (2014). These three events represent the three basic scripts introduced by Dayan and Katz: " conquest, " " coronation " and " contest. " I argue that the selected case studies (and many other events) still bring societies and nations together in our " disillusioned " media environment, providing momentary hope for local and cosmopolitan citizens.

transversal, 2018

This article deals with the affective media practices of the international alternative media center FC/MC during the G20 Summit in Hamburg. Activist sense defines a sensuous mode of activation immanent to contemporary media ecologies, hwere the composition of sense occurs beyond the discursive realm. The article develops the notion of activist sense and affective relaying to provide a conceptual approach towards the affective politics of social movements translocal and techopolitical media practices.

Psychology and Mental Health: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications

This contribution relates recent theoretizations of media events with the emotion theory in order to get a better picture of what role emotions play in these events. Critical view toward media events helps to understand the limitations of the claims made by those who established this concept 30 years ago: Rather than instances magically integrating society, media events are seen as struggles over the meaning in the contested media field where by far not every winning meaning enhances societal integration. Additionally, psychology and sociology of emotion gives a necessary foundation for the concise theory of emotions in the media events and guides the empirical inquiry into the subject by suggesting that research should focus on the arousing rhetoric as well as narratives interpreting this arousal and turning it into the specific emotion. The analyzed media event – political scandal – very well exemplifies the theoretical argument made in regard to media events, demonstrates the pow...

Journal for Cultural Research, 2017

This paper reexamines the long-established notion of 'media events' by contrasting and critically appraising three distinct approaches to the question of media events. These are: ritual theory associated with Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz, secondly, Jean Baudrillard's approach rooted in his notions of simulation and 'non-events' and, finally, the more recent performative approaches to media and mediation. I take Sarah Kember and Joanna Zylinska's reading of media events presented in Life After New Media (2012) as exemplary of the performative approach. An argument is made that the accounts of media events offered by performative approaches add very little, and, indeed, lack the critical insightfulness of the earlier approaches. Both ritual theory and Baudrillard's thought are briefly reappraised and, against Nick Couldry, I try to show that these accounts are not characterised by binary and reductive thinking. The major misunderstandings concern the nature of the sacred and profane dualism and the further dualisms developed in Baudrillard's thought, particularly the figures of implosion and reversibility. Finally, Baudrillard's position on technology is addressed and the paper concludes with the suggestion that his account is not solely negative, since 2 technological developments are not only at the mercy of ironic reversals they may also enable new rituals of disappearance.