Television and the Meaning of 'Live'

This book is about the question of existence, the meaning of'life'. It is an enquiry into the contemporary humansituation as disclosed by television.The elementary components of any real-world situation are place,people and time. These are first examined as basic existentialphenomena drawing on Heidegger's fundamental enquiry into thehuman situation in Being and Time. They are then exploredthrough the technological and production care-structures ofbroadcast television which, routinely and exceptionally, displaythe situated experience of being alive and living in the worldtoday. It shows routinely in the live self-enactments of personsbeing themselves and the liveness of their ordinary talk ontelevision. It shows exceptionally in television coverage of greatoccasions and catastrophes as they unfold live and in real time.Case studies reveal the existential role of television in salvagingthe possibility of genuine experience, and in revealing theworld-historical character of life today. To explore thesequestions, the agenda of sociology - its concern with economic,political and cultural life - is set aside. Being in the world isnot, in the first (or last) instance, a social but an existentialquestion, as an existential enquiry into television todaydiscovers.Passionate and sweeping in scale, this new book from a leadingmedia scholar is a major contribution to our understanding of themedia today.