Scannell Television and the Meaning of 'Live'

An Enquiry into the Human Situation
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7456-7962-4
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 272 Seiten, E-Book

This book is about the question of existence, the meaning of'life'. It is an enquiry into the contemporary humansituation as disclosed by television.
The elementary components of any real-world situation are place,people and time. These are first examined as basic existentialphenomena drawing on Heidegger's fundamental enquiry into thehuman situation in Being and Time. They are then exploredthrough the technological and production care-structures ofbroadcast television which, routinely and exceptionally, displaythe situated experience of being alive and living in the worldtoday. It shows routinely in the live self-enactments of personsbeing themselves and the liveness of their ordinary talk ontelevision. It shows exceptionally in television coverage of greatoccasions and catastrophes as they unfold live and in real time.Case studies reveal the existential role of television in salvagingthe possibility of genuine experience, and in revealing theworld-historical character of life today. To explore thesequestions, the agenda of sociology - its concern with economic,political and cultural life - is set aside. Being in the world isnot, in the first (or last) instance, a social but an existentialquestion, as an existential enquiry into television todaydiscovers.
Passionate and sweeping in scale, this new book from a leadingmedia scholar is a major contribution to our understanding of themedia today.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Scannell, Paddy

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements vi
Preface viii
Part one: An introduction to the phenomenology oftelevision
Prologue: Heidegger's teacup 3
1. What is phenomenology? 5
2. Available world 14
3. Available self 27
4. Available time 39
5. Turning on the TV set 60
6. Television and technology 78
Part two: Television and the meaning of live
7. The meaning of live 93
8. How to talk - on radio 107
9. How to talk - on television 128
10. The moment of the goal - on television 153
11. Being in the moment: the meaning of media events 177
12. Catastrophe - on television 191
13. Television and history 209
Notes 225
References 245
Index 253

Über Autor(innen)

Paddy Scannell is professor in the department of communication studies at the University of Michigan. He was one of the early pioneers of media studies, and a founding editor of the journal Media, Culture and Society.