According to Andreas Hepp and Nick Couldry (by way of Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz) media events are “high holidays of mass communication” or a “genre” of media communications (Hepp & Couldry, 2). Media events can be defined on three levels: syntactic level, semantic level, and pragmatic level. On the syntactic level media events control media communication across different channels and programs and are pre-planned and broadcast live. On the semantic level media events are staged as “historic” events with the message of resolution. On the pragmatic level media events engross large audiences who view them in a festive style (Hepp & Couldry, 2). With these three levels separate from one another they are found in other forms of media communication, but joined together they make up the “genre” that is the media event.
As stated before, no matter where a media event occurs it will most likely be broadcast across the globe, thanks to globalization. Stewart M. Hoover brings up the fact that media events today are “deterritorialized.” There are no longer boundaries for media events; they are accessible outside their nations of origin (Hoover, 286). This can be seen for example with the “cartoon controversy” of 2006. Supposed images of the Prophet Muhammed in Danish newspapers were published and discovered by a large population in the Muslim world which lead to demonstrations, riots, and deaths.
Just eight months after the start of the 21st century the global media event of the century occurred on September 11, 2001. I was in seventh grade English class at the time and none of us knew what was going on, but we knew something was wrong. Soon after people were being pulled out of class and we still did not know why. I remember the entire school was sent to the cafeteria or the gymnasium and people were whispering that there was a terrorist attack in New York City and the Twin Towers had collapsed after planes were flown into them. When I got home I watched on television the videos from cell phone coverage of the attack as well as news station’s recordings; I watched as the first tower went ablaze and the second tower was crashed into and eventually I watched them both collapse, as so many other have all around the world. News of the terrorist attack spread to all parts of the world, and quickly. My family in Israel called us and I was shocked they already knew what had happened about 5,500 miles from them.
Though media events occur about every day all over the world, September 11th has to be the media event of the century. No other media event has impacted the United States and even the rest of the world as much as September 11th. Media events do not have to be tragic like September 11th although it just so happens that most are; more seriously terrible things happen in the world than great ones, unfortunately. The release of the iPad, the movie Avatar, the election of the first black President of the United States are all joyous media events, which is nice for a change.
Couldry, Nick, Hepp, Andreas, and Krotz, Friedrich. Media Events in a Global Age. London, New York: Routledge, 2009. Print.
Verizon media event on Jan. 11 fuels Apple iPhone speculation. Apple Insider. 7 Jan. 2011.
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