Description: Constituting a new television genre, live broadcasts of "historic" events have become world rituals which, according to the authors, have the potential to transform societies even as they transfix viewers around the globe. The authors offer an ethnography of how these events are scripted, negotiated, performed, celebrated, shamanized, and reviewed.
Brief description: Elihu Katz is Trustee Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvannia; Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Scientific Director of the Guttman Institute of Applied Social Research.
Review Quotes: Media Events is a feat of scholarship about a medium that tends to defy scholarship. It is a comprehensive, thoughtful, and original delineation of a phenomenon of live television as a powerful social force. This book marks a milestone in the understanding of how we are affected by television.--Daniel Schorr, National Public Radio