Week 1 - What is a Media Event?

This week marked the beginning of the course and an introduction into what we would be consuming ourself with over the next twelve weeks.

Firstly a large focus was put on 'media events' and their significance within this course but also about their nature. A media event's main characteristics revolve around change; that is sudden and and quite obvious which happens accidentally and spontaneously, and how the media always has to adapt to this change throughout time. Events differ and aren't viewed as static objects, they are ever changing and discussed about as being never ending forms that are part of a larger complex web within society.

As well as change, a media event also affects a change in media usage and cultural change. It would alter the way that media coverage attracts mass media organisations, particularly the element of immediacy when dealing with spontaneity; the "breaking news story" exemplifies this as a crucial event within the viewers lives on television and even disrupting normal segments with live news that alters the way information is shared with the public.

A significant portion of media events fall into the category of weird global media events. This is defined as the singular eruptions that delve into regular media events, which are sudden and come without any warning. The most obvious example of this would be September 11, and the news coverage that broke through routined segmenting but also kept replaying the plane hitting through the Twin Towers because people in the media were unable to share any detailed news with society; instead it caused confusion since the news broke out of our conventional events within society. It became something in everyday life and through these weird global media events, they highlight the importance they have on the media, cultural and social effects due to these events being inflicted upon society.

While media is rapidly changing as the years go by, it has a large impact on how news in distributed to society and affects the nature of reality at how we as individuals and within a greater society relate to data and information and how this is represented to us through the ever changing media systems. These changes affect the present and future of established industries while highlighting the imperative nature of media and communications within a greater society.