Science as well. Finally, all those who were mesmerized by the Thomas/Hill hearings, the Gulf War coverage, and other recent media events will find it enlightening and instructive.

Media Events: A Critical Contemporary Approach proposes an interdisciplinary and multicultural approach of Dayan and Katz's theory of media events (1992) by applying it to contemporary situations. The contributing authors come from a range of countries (UK, USA, Mexico, Germany, Finland, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Ukraine) and analyse the theory of media events from different perspectives, incorporating social media and offering a re-positioning of Dayan and Katz's theory of media events. By bringing new perspectives into this field, the proposed volume is an important contribution as it grounds the intervention and rethinking of the theory into further empirical research. This volume has the potential to function as a 'cross-generational' link between one of the 'early classics' of media and communication studies on the one hand and the present generation of researchers on the other.

Media events have been described as broadcasts that involve an engaged audience viewing the same event simultaneously; though this definition is still relevant, the way media outlets interact with and react to their audiences has greatly changed. This is in part due to the emergence of social media platforms which allow a participatory audience, something that genre-specific television channels now rely on. Because these genre-specific, 24-hour channels seek to hook viewers with hyperbolic presentation and the illusion of large media events, the original definition must be adapted. Global Perspectives on Media Events in Contemporary Society seeks to re-define the role of the media in relaying information about current events within a modern context. Determining what constitutes as and the proper presentation of a media event is of great importance given the ubiquity of media consumption. This book approaches the topic from historical, ceremonial, and globally cultural perspectives while addressing news, sports, and other significant current events. It is a vital resource for students and teachers of communication, media, and journalism, professionals in the media industry, policy makers, and sociologists.

What are hybrid media events? And how do these events shape our lives in the present digital age? This book addresses these questions by explaining how terrorist violence makes global events. The empirical analyses are based on the case of Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015 and the global circulation of solidarities and anger connected with the attacks.

The 'eventization' of the media is increasingly important for the marketing and appreciation of popular media texts. Media Events gives readers an understanding of the major debates in this high-profile area of media and cultural research.

This book is among the first to use a "media events" framework to examine China's Internet activism and politics, and the first study of the transformation of China's media events through the parameter of online activism. The author locates the practices of major modes of online activism in China (shanzhai [culture jamming]; citizen journalism; and weiguan [mediated mobilisation]) into different types of Chinese media events (ritual celebration, natural disaster, political scandal). The contextualised analysis of online activism thus enables exploration of the spatial, temporal and relational dimensions of Chinese online activism with other social agents -- such as the Party-state, mainstream media and civil society. Analysis reveals Internet politics in China on three interrelated levels: the individual, the discursive and the institutional. Contemporary cases, rich in empirical research data and interdisciplinary theory, demonstrate that the alternative and activist use of the Internet has intervened into and transformed conventional Chinese media events in various types of agents, their agendas and performances, and the subsequent and corresponding political impact. The Party-market controlled Chinese media events have become more open, contentious and deliberative in the Web 2.0 era due to the active participation of ordinary Chinese people aided by the Internet.

The media are an inescapable part of our everyday life. Drawing on sociological and anthropological approaches to the study of ritual, Nick Couldry applies the work of theorists to a number of important media arenas.