Daniel Dayan

The Tutor-Code of Classical Cinema

clusions about statistical style analysis can be arrived at. However, the results so far are based on more objective facts than have ever been used in the field of style comment before. The methods used can obviously be applied also to sections of a film when one is considering the interactions between, and relations of, form and content. And they can decide questions of attribution, such as who really directed The Mortal Storm, Borzage or Saville? A few hours with a film on a moviola is always more instructive than clusions about statistical style analysis can be arrived at. However, the results so far are based watching a second screening of i , and then retiring to an armchair and letting ones imagination run riot.

Contests, Conquests, Coronations: On Media Events and Their Heroes

In their classic paper, Lazarsfeld and Merton (1948) identified “status conferral” as one of the major functions of mass communications. The media enhance and legitimize the status of those to whom they call attention. This formulation, however, understates the reciprocal character of the process. In fact, there are two senses in which persons of status reciprocate: First, they affirm and enhance the status of the media that have access to them; secondly, and more fundamentally, the pronouncements and actions of persons of status are essential to the very practice of journalism. Implicit in the theory of Western journalism is the axiom that the talk and deeds of individuals—particularly those in office—are the basic force in social stability and change.

L’esprit de l’escalier: 25 years of hindsight

Media Events offer a recent example of the continuous transformation of the form ‘event’ throughout history. Illustrating the performative power of dramatic gestures, they characterize moments of heightened participation in the public sphere and the emergence of ‘performing publics’. Media Events must be compared to other sorts of ‘expressive events’, including ‘pseudo-events’ and conflictual events. We note that this variety involves enlisting broadcasters by agencies of the establishment or by forces of disruption. Assessing them in the context of ‘globalization’ involves noting that there are many conflicting globalizations. Despite their respective dogmatisms, both critical and functional approaches illuminate the interplay of hegemony and solidarity in the very same events. We speculate on the future of the genre in the age of social media and heightened audience skepticism.

On Whose Terms Are You Shown

What are the facts that reach the status of ‘shared facts’? Through which mechanisms do they become recognized, accepted as facts? ‘Reality’, writes Lyotard, ‘is a status of the referent that results from the effectuation of procedures of fact-establishment’ (Lyotard 1988: 32). Such procedures are defined by agreed protocols and their effectuation is entrusted to specific institutions. I would call such institutions the ‘reality-pronouncing institutions’.

Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History.

Preface Defining Media Events: High Holidays of Mass Communication Scripting Media Events: Contest, Conquest, Coronation Negotiating Media Events Performing Media Events Celebrating Media Events Shamanizing Media Events Reviewing Media Events Appendix: Five Frames for Assessing the Effects of Media Events Notes References Acknowledge Index