A media event stands apart from the everyday monotony of the news. Dayan and Katz loosely define a media event as “high holidays of mass communication.” (Couldry & Hepp, 2010) They felt strongly that a single event or outstanding ritual in media communication be considered media events. The word itself brings some confusion, anything that makes it to the newsstands seems worthy of the title “media event.” On a slow news day the broadcaster may choose to air stories of cat getting stuck in tree; these stories are not worthy of being called media events.
A media event must be a story whose influence can be felt on a massive scale. Today, with the quick proliferation of news it seems that even the smallest events can reach the global platform because of the advent of the Internet. For an event to be worth of the term media event it seems proper that the event take over and become the one story that nearly all media channels are carrying.
The best example of media event I can offer is the election of Barrack Obama as president of the United States. As the first black President of our country, Barrack inspired a world to latch onto his cause to push for his election. His election was not an event that was observed just in the United States, his election was a media sensation, those rare events that grab the attention of the entire world, clogging up all forms of media exchange. You could not open a newspaper, go online or watch television without hearing about it. It stands, in my eyes as one of the largest media events of our generation. It stands alongside with events like Pearl Harbor and the shooting of John F. Kennedy.
Media events differentiate themselves in another important way, they become the substance of future history books. No one will remember the blizzards of 2010 even though they covered the new channels for days with tales, but open a history book in 50 years and the election of Barrack Obama will be found. Media events not only make news today but create the memories of the next hundred years.
I agree with you in that every news story is not worthy of being called a media event simply because it is on the news. But any story no matter how small or insignificant can easily be spread via the world wide web and there is no stopping this. Like you said, news of a cat getting stuck in a tree would most likely not impact people around the world, not even people where it is happening.
ReplyDeleteI loved your claim that media events become stories of future books and memories because this could not be more true. To go along with this, media events are put in history books because they are so important and influential that they have become a part of history, and history is forever.
If I could revise the broad definition of a media event as suggested by Hepp and Couldry, I would add the last sentence you wrote in this piece. I couldn't agree more.
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