Beyond Television?

During a stop on their ‘roadshow,’ two world renown media researchers, Elihu Katz and Paddy Scannell, treated an audience at The New School for Social Research to some current reflections on “media events” and long-term television developments. It was Katz and his co-author and DC regular Daniel Dayan,  who started exploring these events in the 1970s when the surprising trip by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to Israel and the ensuing television coverage inspired them and the world. It was the start of their long and intensive exploration of ceremonial contests, conquests and coronations that were celebrated through live broadcasts on television, resulting in one of the defining books in the field of media studies, Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History.  Recently, Katz and Scannell, the founding editor of Media, Culture and Society, have been revisiting the phenomenon. Things have changed, but media events appear to be still with us.

A telling example: Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009 which drew some 37+ million viewers. This once in a lifetime happening was a quintessential “media event.” The live broadcast of the meticulously scripted ceremony brought everyday life to a temporary standstill. Reporters and the vast audience were filled with awe in their celebration of the election of the first American black president. In addition to media that offered a live-streaming of the event, TVs were still the go-to medium. Television seemed to be alive, if not completely well.

As a student and collaborator of Paul Lazarsfeld at Columbia’s Bureau of Applied Social Research, Katz for many years was skeptical about the power of media to change people’s minds.  But as a co-author with Dayan, he speaks in awe and fascination about the live images of astronauts landing on the moon, of the newly elected Polish Pope kissing his native soil, and of royal weddings and official funerals. He knows that the television broadcasts of these events were performative, with real and significant social impact.

Fast forward to the current unrest in the Middle East.  There we see typical examples of disruptive, unplanned happenings that upstage the normal flow of news bulletins and ceremonial media events. In the past 10 years or so, sudden and dramatic events have been front and center on our media screens. Think 9/11, the 2003 Iraq invasion, and Hurricane Katrina, to name just a few huge ones. Katz and Scannell wonder if these kinds of happenings can also be considered media events, or if these unscripted versions belong to another genre.

The reasons why disrupting events have become ubiquitous give some insight. The institution of television, while busy broadcasting all these ‘mediathons’ about missing children, adulterous officials, natural and manmade disasters, has changed vastly. And newer forms of media have upstaged old-fashioned television. In addition to all that, Katz and Scannell also blame cynicism and disenchantment towards both the media and governments. Can it be that these developments not only lead to the redefinition of media events, but also to the matter of how people nowadays end up celebrating their ceremonies? If we can no longer watch spectacular, live media events, together, simultaneously, experiencing a sense of belonging, how and where are we going to make up for that?

What did television do for mankind? Among other things, it gave societies an outlet to celebrate themselves, as Katz and Dayan clearly showed. Although its days are numbered, it is still a bit too early to suggest that television’s time is completely over. The inauguration of President Obama was made for television! But also for a Web audience that could follow every Obama’s movement on computer screens thanks to live streaming. And the web audience was able to respond, interact, let’s say participate, in a way that the television audience could not. But as an interactive medium, as a medium partially integrated with the web, TV has its limits. An additional problem is that CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and the like, spend most of their time airing a sheer endless onslaught of disruptive events. This doesn’t leave much room for celebration.  Admittedly, broadcasters are trying to morph tales of war and terror into instances of celebration of our freedom and democracy and others’ lack thereof. But they are not in control. Terrorists, criminals, militaries, and Mother Nature are behind the scripts of disasters. The broadcasting of them on multiple rival channels has rather disintegrated society instead of bringing people together.

The mediated celebration of national ceremonies on television may truly be in a crisis. The end of television as we know it is near. But not all is lost. A more interactive successor may very well deal with future events. And there is still the marking of modest events. Although the evening with Katz and Scannell itself did not produce many answers to the questions raised by our new media order, the show turned out to be an insightful ceremony in itself, in which the making of Media Events, i.e. the book, was celebrated. And rightfully so.