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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Media ecology is characterized today by the frequent airing of disruptive events. The shared
experience of broadcasting is thus taken by disenchantment, fragmentation and
individualization. Does this mean that integrative and ceremonial media events are condemned
to disappear? What about media rituals and collective consensus?
In this chapter, we argue that the Media Events category is not just an invaluable frame to
understand contemporary television but it is also a vital process on the way societies re-work
their solidarities, negotiate collective belonging and publicly stage social rituals. Analysing the
live coverage of the funerary ceremonies of Eusébio, the Portuguese world-wide football legend,
we address this major social occurrence approaching it as a death media event, a public
mourning ceremonial and a tele-ritual.
Media events are still a powerful example of how media plays a major role on social integration
and national identity. The television broadcast of Eusébio’s funeral - it is claimed - constitutes a
key example, in the Portuguese society, of the integrative dimension of public events.
Description
Keywords
Media Events Ritual communication Media rituals Public mourning Television studies Publicity . Faculdade de Artes e Humanidades
Citation
Mateus, Samuel. 2016. "The Black Panther has died: or how ceremonial television hosted public mourning". In Global perspectives on media events in contemporary society, 158 - 171. London: IGI.