Global media events and the positioning of presence

This article engages with the ‘canonical’ work of Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz (1992) in re-examining aspects of the phenomenology of the media event, especially those of a global sporting nature. It considers a range of questions of ‘gain’ and ‘loss’ in ‘being there’, and of television-inspired changes to the experience of in-person attendance. Innovations in the viewing possibilities at global media events are considered in relation to forms of sociality during competitions such as the Olympic Games and the soccer World Cup. The discussion also notes the existence of significant variations in the ‘script forms’ of apparently similar media event types. Finally, it identifies interacting areas of focus important for an effective analysis of the dialectics of remote and proximate experience of global media events like the recent Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.