Towards a historical understanding of the media event

Abstract

The English-language research tradition of studying media events is widely considered to have started with Dayan and Katz' Media Events. This seminal work is characterised by an emphasis on liveness and broadcast technology as conditions of eventfulness. The German-language tradition of research on historical media events provides a very different approach to studying media events, starting from the 16th-century advent of mechanical production and distribution. Bringing together these strands of research, the article argues for a deepening of the historical dimension in conceiving of media events. After a critical review of the English-language tradition and an overview of key media-historical research contributions particularly from Germany, it discusses three main themes: the role of temporal acceleration over time by means of media technologies; the role of premeditation in events and the tradition of discussing media-generated events as 'pseudo-events', and the historically shifting relationships between mediated and non-mediated communication in the event. By way of conclusion, the article relates a historical perspective on media events to recent research and discussion around mediatisation.

The front page as a time freezer: An analysis of the international newspaper coverage after the Charlie Hebdo attacks

“…This article aimed to offer an insight into one aspect of the mediatization of the Charlie Hebdo event, namely the performative and informative character of newspaper front pages that play a significant role in the temporal processes of events that take shape and help to ‘make sense’ for an audience while still being ‘ongoing’. Diachronically speaking, keeping trace of media texts – and specifically front pages – as a future historical source can enrich current and future scholarly work on media events and mediatization with a focus on historical and mnemonic interrogations (Ytreberg, 2017). In addition to content analysis and the analysis of media texts in general, methodologies such as news agencies ethnographies or in-depth interviews with journalists are also needed to tackle more profoundly the different editorial choices internationally when it comes to the front page.…”

“…Balbi, 2011; Dubied, 2004; Ludes, 1991; Lundby, 2009). Among the recent critique in regard to the concept, Deacon and Stanyer (2014) mention the lack of historical approaches to mediatization ; however, the latter has begun to be satisfied by several studies (Ytreberg, 2017; Marszolek and Robel, 2016; Niemeyer, 2011). As a special agent of mediatization , the front page offers the possibility of ‘freezing’ – at least symbolically – the very often long-lasting live coverage of the (ongoing) events.…”

Charlie Hebdo, 2015: ‘Liveness’ and acceleration of conflict in a hybrid media event

“…Barbie Zelizer (2018) discusses 'mnemonic schemes', temporal frameworks of interpretation that guide the ways in which media events are produced as well as made sense of in To follow Zelizer (2018) and Sonnevend (2016) we claim that while in the present condition the live streaming of digital media has intensified the sense of liveness in hybrid media events, it has not taken away the temporality of frames and schemes applied to make those events and interpret them as part of the live experience (cf. Jordheim, 2012;Koselleck, 1985;Ytreberg, 2017).…”

“…Although the media has been portrayed as creating a space for imagined communities since the early days of nations (Anderson, 1983), the acceleration of meaning production and the complexity of the hybrid media environment precipitates up the process of interpretation (cf. Ytreberg, 2017). Metonymic, affective and sticky connections (cf.…”

SKAMs ’lige her’ og ’lige nu’ : Om SKAM og nærvær

“…(jf. også Ytreberg, 2017). I forhold til en webserie som SKAM omfatter precensing de digitale strategier, hvorigennem begivenheden bliver til og konstituerer sig som begivenhed lige her og lige nu, sammen med os og i kraft af os.…”