A media event, also known as a pseudo-event, [1] is an event, activity, or experience conducted for the purpose of creating media publicity. It may also be any event that is covered in the mass media or was hosted largely with the media in mind. [2]
A media event, also known as a pseudo-event, [1] is an event, activity, or experience conducted for the purpose of creating media publicity. It may also be any event that is covered in the mass media or was hosted largely with the media in mind. [2]
In media studies, "media event" is an established theoretical term first developed by Elihu Katz and Daniel Dayan in the 1992 book Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History. [3] Media events in this sense are ceremonial events with narrative progression that are live broadcast and gather a large segment of the population, such as royal weddings or funerals. [4] The defining characteristics of a media event are that it is immediate (i.e., it is broadcast live), organized by a non-media entity, containing ceremonial and dramatic value, preplanning, and focusing on a personality, whether that be a single person or a group. [5] The 2009 book Media Events in a Global Age updates the concept. [6] The theory of media events has also been applied to social media, for instance in an analysis of tweets about the Swedish elections [7] or an analysis of the Bernie Sanders mittens meme during the inauguration of Joe Biden. [8]
Media events may center on a news announcement, an anniversary, a news conference, or planned events like speeches or demonstrations. Instead of paying for advertising time, a media or pseudo-event seeks to use public relations to gain media and public attention. The theorist Marshal McLuhan has stated that the pseudo-event has been viewed as an event that is separate from reality and is to simply satisfy our need for constant excitement and interest in pop culture. These events are, “planned, planted, or incited (Merrin, 2002)” solely to be reproduced later again and again. [9]
The term "pseudo-event" was coined by the theorist and historian Daniel J. Boorstin in his 1961 book The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America : “The celebration is held, photographs are taken, the occasion is widely reported.” [10] The term is closely related to idea of hyperreality and thus postmodernism, although Boorstin's coinage predates the two ideas and related work of postmodern thinkers such as Jean Baudrillard. A media event being a kind of planned event, it may be called inauthentic in contrast to a spontaneous one.
In distinguishing between a pseudo-event and a spontaneous one, Boorstin states characteristics of a pseudo-event in his book titled "Hidden History." He says that a pseudo-event is: dramatic, repeatable, costly, intellectually planned, and social. It causes other pseudo-events, and one must know about it to be considered "informed". [11]
Media events became prominent when the media did. The driving of the Golden Spike in Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869 has been described as one of the first media events in the United States. Edward Bernays and his Torches of Freedom campaign in 1929 is an example of an early media event that successfully influenced public opinion. Similarly, Nikita Khrushchev visit to the United States in 1959 was highly influential, and has been cited as the first example of media events being utilized in politics. [13]
Media events became practical in the middle 19th century as the Morse telegraph and the expansion of daily newspapers introduced same-day news cycles. The emergence of the internet led to many media stories being published live from the media event, real-time Twitter coverage, and immediate analysis of televised media events. When musical artist Prince pretended to take questions during his Super Bowl press conference but instead broke immediately into song, his performance itself became a meta media-event-within-a-media-event. [14]
From a postmodern perspective, Jean Baudrillard argued in his essay The Gulf War Did Not Take Place that the Gulf War, the first war broadcast on television, was not a real war, but a media event planned by the US army and media outlets like CNN. [15]
These events are used by public relations professionals to satisfy journalists’ interests and needs so they can create a great story that makes an impact on the public. Examples include politicians taking photos with citizens to boost their likeability and press conferences. Though this is very common, using this media technique has been criticized for not producing authentic material, which is seen as stylistic instead of substantial informational. The public relations industry targets all sectors, not just government, with pseudo-events on behalf of representing and maintaining their clients’ interests and image. [16] This can bring into question if some of the media put out is actually true news and can be relied on, especially since serious topics are talked about using this technique.
The tourism industry is subject to pseudo-events that are often unnoticed to the average tourist themselves. Every country may have specific sites, attractions, and things to do for a tourist so they can experience what life is like in that country or at least be introduced to the culture. The locals know that these attractions aren't always a true reflection of life in that country, but rather a hyperreality to satisfy the desire to see the real thing. [17] Tourists are in search for the authenticity when visiting but these events that appear as one thing are not truly authentic; it is a symbol. [17]
In a postmodern perspective, tourists can enjoy these staged attractions and activities to get a more realistic experience. Examples include taking photos with a character or actor who plays the part of an authentic local or buying souvenirs at a market. Some tourists don't notice these events because they are made to distract from everyday life. [17]
Boorstin has viewed celebrities as ‘human pseudo-events’, specifically in American culture thought history, since the 1800s. Celebrities have an image that represents an ideal life, an elite status and persona that is separate from everyday life. They are seen as glamorous but with a distance from the public sphere. There are some celebrities that portray a life that seems unattainable by many, then there are celebrities who are famous for actual achievements. Examples of pseudo-events created by celebrities range from anything from signing autographs, making public appearances, holding an exclusive event, or doing projects with charities. [18]
Non-scientific internet polls have been increasingly popular as a conversational tool on websites and major news outlets. This method is used to invite participants to take a survey, which can generate thousands of responses or more. These polls are self-selected and can be used to drive more traffic to the website, which can cause the need for more news and generate more revenue. The large volume of responses can improve the image that is being reported rather than the news content itself. [19] Participants can believe that their participation in these polls can contribute to the reported online survey's topic. Jack Fuller, President of Tribune Publishing Company, has touched on this topic and how this form of gathering information for non-scientific reasons can be inauthentic. [19] The use of these online polls as news content can place scientific polls used for research to be equally as legitimate when that is often not the case. Boorstin has noted that these pseudo-events' main goals are meeting increased demands for more news and revenue generation. [20]
Since 1991 when Baudrillard made the bold claim that "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place", the authenticity of war coverages has long been debated. [15] Similar claims have also been made on the Russo-Ukrainian War, which broke out against the backdrop of a much more post-modernized society in which anyone can create their own news and "realities". [21] [22]
Postmodern philosophy is a philosophical movement that arose in the second half of the 20th century as a critical response to assumptions allegedly present in modernist philosophical ideas regarding culture, identity, history, or language that were developed during the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment. Postmodernist thinkers developed concepts like différance, repetition, trace, and hyperreality to subvert "grand narratives", univocity of being, and epistemic certainty. Postmodern philosophy questions the importance of power relationships, personalization, and discourse in the "construction" of truth and world views. Many postmodernists appear to deny that an objective reality exists, and appear to deny that there are objective moral values.
Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of power. Although post-structuralists all present different critiques of structuralism, common themes among them include the rejection of the self-sufficiency of structuralism, as well as an interrogation of the binary oppositions that constitute its structures. Accordingly, post-structuralism discards the idea of interpreting media within pre-established, socially constructed structures.
Historical reenactments is an educational or entertainment activity in which mainly amateur hobbyists and history enthusiasts dress in historical uniforms and follow a plan to recreate aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as a reenactment of Pickett's Charge presented during the 1913 Gettysburg reunion, or as broad as an entire period, such as Regency reenactment.
Jean Baudrillard was a French sociologist and philosopher with an interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulation of concepts such as hyperreality. Baudrillard wrote about diverse subjects, including consumerism, critique of economy, social history, aesthetics, Western foreign policy, and popular culture. Among his most well-known works are Seduction (1978), Simulacra and Simulation (1981), America (1986), and The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991). His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and specifically post-structuralism. Nevertheless, Baudrillard had also opposed post-structuralism, and had distanced himself from postmodernism.
The two-step flow of communication model says that most people form their opinions under the influence of opinion leaders, who in turn are influenced by the mass media. In contrast to the one-step flow of the hypodermic needle model or magic bullet theory, which holds that people are directly influenced by mass media, according to the two-step flow model, ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population. Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretation of information in addition to the actual media content.
Hyperreality is a concept in post-structuralism that refers to the process of the evolution of notions of reality, leading to a cultural state of confusion between signs and symbols invented to stand in for reality, and direct perceptions of consensus reality. Hyperreality is seen as a condition in which, because of the compression of perceptions of reality in culture and media, what is generally regarded as real and what is understood as fiction are seamlessly blended together in experiences so that there is no longer any clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins.
Opinion leadership is leadership by an active media user who interprets the meaning of media messages or content for lower-end media users. Typically opinion leaders are held in high esteem by those who accept their opinions. Opinion leadership comes from the theory of two-step flow of communication propounded by Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz. Significant developers of the opinion leader concept have been Robert K. Merton, C. Wright Mills and Bernard Berelson. This theory is one of several models that try to explain the diffusion of innovations, ideas, or commercial products.
Daniel Joseph Boorstin was an American historian at the University of Chicago who wrote on many topics in American and world history. He was appointed the twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress in 1975 and served until 1987. He was instrumental in the creation of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.
The Gulf War Did Not Take Place is a collection of three short essays by Jean Baudrillard published in the French newspaper Libération and British paper The Guardian between January and March 1991.
White Noise is the eighth novel by Don DeLillo, published by Viking Press in 1985. It won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
Simulacra and Simulation is a 1981 philosophical treatise by the philosopher and cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard, in which he seeks to examine the relationships between reality, symbols, and society, in particular the significations and symbolism of culture and media involved in constructing an understanding of shared existence.
Post-postmodernism is a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture which are emerging from and reacting to postmodernism.
Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph. Hyperrealism is considered an advancement of photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily applied to an independent art movement and art style in the United States and Europe that has developed since the early 1970s. Carole Feuerman is the forerunner in the hyperrealism movement along with Duane Hanson and John De Andrea.
Douglas Kellner is an American academic who works at the intersection of "third-generation" critical theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, or Frankfurt School, and in cultural studies in the tradition of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, or the "Birmingham School". He has argued that these two conflicting philosophies are in fact compatible. He is currently the George Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Popular culture is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a society at a given point in time. Popular culture also encompasses the activities and feelings produced as a result of interaction with these dominant objects. The primary driving forces behind popular culture, especially when speaking of Western popular cultures, are the mass media, mass appeal, marketing and capitalism; and it is produced by what philosopher Theodor Adorno refers to as the "culture industry".
Daniel Dayan is a French social scientist born in 1943. A fellow of the Marcel Mauss Institute at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and the Levinas European Institute, Dayan has been Director of Research in Sociology at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, professor of Media Theory at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques Paris, and a Hans Speier Visiting Professor at the New school for Social Research.
Truth claim, in photography, is a term Tom Gunning uses to describe the prevalent belief that traditional photographs accurately depict reality. He states that the truth claim relies on both the indexicality and visual accuracy of photographs.
In social psychology, superficiality refers to a lack of depth in relationships, conversation and analysis. The principle of "superficiality versus depth" is said to have pervaded Western culture since at least the time of Plato. Social psychology considers that in everyday life, social processing veers between superficiality and a deeper form of processing.
Kurt Lang and Gladys Engel Lang were American sociologists and communications theorists whose early work is associated with the Chicago School. Their research engaged many contemporary problems in communications including the effect of televised politics on the formation of public opinion. They collaborated on a number of intellectual projects after publishing their award-winning seminal essay, "MacArthur Day in Chicago", in 1953.
The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America is a 1962 book by the political historian Daniel J. Boorstin. In his book, Boorstin argues that Americans have a false "image" of what "news" actually is. He argues that Americans mistake certain "pseudo-events" for real news, when in fact they are the contrivances of politicians and news corporations.