Live Television&apos;s Disaster Marathon of September 11 and its Subversive Potential

Blondheim, Menahem; Liebes, Tamar

doi:10.1080/08109020210141434

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Prometheus

Volume 20, Issue 3

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Article: found

Is Open Access

Live Television's Disaster Marathon of September 11 and its Subversive Potential

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research-article

Author(s): Menahem Blondheim , Tamar Liebes

Publication date (Print): September 2002

Journal: Prometheus

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: Television, Media Events, Disasters, Disaster Marathon, Terrorism, September 11

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Abstract

Television's coverage of the tragic events of September 11 can be viewed and understood as a paradigmatic disaster marathon. The salience of the attack's visual images, their exclusivity on the screen for a protracted period, and the invisibility of their perpetrators enhanced the attack's effectiveness. The paper highlights a number of problems that the September 11 disaster marathon poses to the profession of journalism and to society, and points out possible remedies for the future. It ends with a short discussion of the ways in which television's coverage of the event both resembled and differed from the media-event model, and of theoretical aspects of its unique dimensions as a disaster marathon.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (publisher-id): cpro20

Journal ID (archive): CPRO

Title: Prometheus

Subtitle: Critical Studies in Innovation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 0810-9028

ISSN (Electronic): 1470-1030

Publication date (Print): September 2002

Volume: 20

Issue: 3

Pages: 271-276

Article

Publisher ID: 10032462 Coden ID: Prometheus, Vol. 20, No. 3, September 2002, pp. 271-276

DOI: 10.1080/08109020210141434

SO-VID: 34a8fcfc-7395-47ae-86f8-5de37124f127

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Page count

Figures: 0, Tables: 0, References: 11, Pages: 6

References

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Tuchman Gaye. . 1978. . Making Nous: A Study in the Construction of Beauty . , p. 49––58. . New York : : Free Press. .

[2] Barthes Roland. . 1981. . Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography . , New York : : Hill and wang. .

[3] Friedlander Saul. . 1993. . Reflections of Nazism: An Essay on Kitsch and Death . , Bloomington : : Indiana University Press. .

[4] Smith Jeffery A.. 1999. . War and Press Freedom: The Problem of Prerogative Power . , New York : : Oxford University Press. .

[5] Dayan Daniel and Katz Elihu. . 1992. . Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History . , Cambridge : : Harvard University Press. .

[6] Dayan D. and Katz E.. 1985. . 'Media events: on the experience of not being there'. . Religion . , Vol. 15:: 305––14. .

[7] Dayan D. and Katz E.. 1995. . “'Political ceremony and instant history'. ”. In Television: An International History . , Edited by: Smith Anthony. . p. 169––88. . Oxford : : Oxford University Press. .

[8] Liebes T.. 1998. . “'Television's disaster marathons: a danger for democratic processes?'. ”. In Media, Ritual and Identity . , Edited by: Liebes T. and Curran J.. p. 71––84. . London : : Routledge. .

[9] Dobkin Bethami A.. 1992. . Tales of Terror. Television News and the Construction of the Terrorist Threat . , New York : : Praeger. .

[10] Weimann Gabriel. . 1994. . The Theater of Terror Mass Media and International Terrorism . , New York : : Longman. .

[11] Molotch H. and Lester M.. 1974. . 'News as purposive behavior'. . American Sociological Review . , Vol. 39:: 101––12. .