Description
The elementary components of any real-world situation are place, people and time. These are first examined as basic existential phenomena drawing on Heidegger's fundamental enquiry into the human situation in Being and Time. They are then explored through the technological and production care-structures of broadcast television which, routinely and exceptionally, display the situated experience of being alive and living in the world today. It shows routinely in the live self-enactments of persons being themselves and the liveness of their ordinary talk on television. It shows exceptionally in television coverage of great occasions and catastrophes as they unfold live and in real time. Case studies reveal the existential role of television in salvaging the possibility of genuine experience, and in revealing the world-historical character of life today. To explore these questions, the agenda of sociology - its concern with economic, political and cultural life - is set aside. Being in the world is not, in the first (or last) instance, a social but an existential question, as an existential enquiry into television today discovers.
Passionate and sweeping in scale, this new book from a leading media scholar is a major contribution to our understanding of the media today.
About the Author
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.
Reviews
"Television and the Meaning of Live is an important and exciting book, which helps one to see television, and media in general, in new ways. More than this, it is a book that can help one to see the world as a whole anew, as befits the task of 'unconcealment' that was Heidegger's goal. It cannot be recommended highly enough."
Critical Studies in Television
''Taking a refreshing phenomenological perspective, Paddy Scannell offers a thoughtful and compelling analysis of the way live radio and television capture and disclose the everyday human situation. A remarkable intellectual achievement by one of the most influential theorists of communication, this book will definitely enrich and deepen our understanding of the central role of broadcasting in our lived experience.''
Milly Buonanno, La Sapienza University of Roma, author of The Age of Television
''Can a phenomenology of " live " broadcasting illuminate the nature of everyday human situations? Paddy Scannell daringly answers : yes. The meaning of " Live " has much to tell us about the meaning of " Life " . Inspired by Heidegger's Being and Time, this brilliant and provocative book challenges us to unlock media theory from the relentless embrace of sociologism.''
Daniel Dayan, Centre National de la Recherche scientifique & Institut d'etudes Politiques, Paris
''Using television, Paddy Scannell examines our situatedness in the world and carves out a strikingly fresh approach to media analysis. A seminal contribution--perceptive and humane.''
Carolyn Marvin, Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania
Book Information
ISBN 9780745662558
Author Paddy Scannell
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Polity Press
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 440g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 154mm * 23mm
