Addresses some of the apparent successes and failures in spectacle production and reception Uses historical case studies to explore the phenomenon of the spectacle Explores how the rise of polarizing political figures such as as Donald Trump have been bolstered by spectacle

Autorentext

Brian M. Lowe is Associate Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Oneonta, USA. He holds degrees in sociology from Queen's University, Ontario, CA, and the University of Virginia, USA.

Zusammenfassung

This volume considers the rise of a new mode of creating, spreading, and encountering moral claims and ideas as they are expressed within spectacles. Brian M. Lowe explains how spectacles emerge when we are saturated with mediated representationsincluding pictures, texts, and videosand exposed to television and movies and the myriad stories they tell us. The question of which moral issues gain our attention and which are neglected increasingly relates to how societal concerns are supportedor obscuredby spectacles. This project explores how this new form of moral understanding came to be. Through a series of case studies, including the use of radio and comic books; the crafting of Russian national identity through art; television and film; the evolution of human rights law through film and journalism; and the promotion of animal rights campaigns, this book unveils some of the ways in which our spectacular environment shapes moral understanding, and is in turn shaped by spectacle.

Inhalt

1. Emergence of Spectacles.- 2. Spectacular Theory.- 3. Building Spectacles through Bricolage.- 4. Spectacles of Power and the Power of Spectacles.- 5. Spectacular Locations.- 6. Spectacular Representations.- 7. Spectacular Animals. 8. Conclusion.- 9. Coda: The Election of Donald J. Trump and Spectacle.