More Hope!: Ceremonial Media Events Are Still Powerful in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

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.