Web 2.0 Media Events: Barack Obama’s Inauguration

Abstract

With the development of the Internet, access to information and live broadcasts has become easier. In search of a global audience, the media is constantly transforming events into media events. As some scholars put it, today the power lies with the media (Poster, 1990; Debord, 1994; Berkowitz, 1997; Couldry, 2000; Luhmann, 2000). In this context, is Dayan and Katz’s media events theoretical framework still relevant? How much is the Internet changing our understanding of the media events theory? This chapter will argue that today, perhaps more than ever, with increasing processes of mediatization, media events theory is still relevant and is, again, an emerging field of research that must be developed further. This chapter maps out a new concept — the concept of user-generated media events, and reflects on Dayan and Katz’s theory of media events by analysing a ‘high holiday of mass communication’ (Dayan and Katz, 1992, p. 1): the first investiture of Barack Obama as president of the USA. The chapter also discusses how various media platforms came together to build a media event, forming what Ytreberg (2014) calls ‘media ensemble’. For Ytreberg (2014, p. 7), a striking feature of a media event is the importance of a large number of media technologies: photography, cinematography, telegraphy, newspapers, journals, illustrated lectures, advertisements, books, diaries, cartoons, magazines, stamps and printed popular songs — all set up to serve different functions for the media event, together forming a diverse and functional media ensemble.