Live television: Time, space and the broadcast event.(Book review)

Marriott, S. (2007). Live television: Time, space and the broadcast event. Los Angeles: Sage. 137 pages.

Starting with the Langs' famed study of the 1951 MacArthur Day parade, scholars have been fascinated by the mediated realities conveyed by live broadcast television. Sixty years later, a question is whether new media opportunities, from YouTube to Tivo, have rendered obsolete this time-honored subject. From the UK has come an affirmative answer. Inspired by "the consequences of media convergence," Scottish author Stephanie Marriott upholds the live TV camera as an ongoing "object of experience." No longer bound to "a living room" but now "streamed to a computer or a mobile phone," she observes, live programs continue to "restructure the world."

Marriott, a lecturer at the University of Stirling, provides an account that will stimulate but possibly elude media scholars in the United States. Concentrated on British broadcasting, the work probes live television not as mass but as rhetorical communication. Its method is "phenomenology," a study pioneered in 1962 by British sociologist Alfred Schutz. In 137 pages, Marriott packs theories and commentaries from 120 mostly European authors. The theories shape insights from Marriott's viewing of recordings of around ten live telecasts. They include the BBC's 1999 millennium program, news coverage of the 1963 Kennedy assassination, the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, and the 2005 London subway bombings.

The book excels by contemplating live television as an "everywhere-simultaneous" experience that convolutes sense and perceptions. The book's two parts incisively define "time and space" and "the live event." Intriguing is Marriott's comparison of live television to advancements in transportation. She finds in both an intertwine of compressed distance and increased velocity. Her major contribution is that of clarifying, and exhorting, that live television seldom is truly live. Programs are compendiums of video replays, pre-packaged features, and presenters' rehash and review. Not often does society experience events at the moment they occur.

While rich in original thinking, the book is too brief to permit much more than mere contemplation. The brevity limits the spectrum of live television. Not considered are sports broadcasts, game shows, late-night comedy fare, call-in programs, or, as propelled by Britain's Pop Idol, the global torrent of reality shows. Devoted entirely to television news, it does appeal to those whose interests are in that area. Yet content is confined to the studio communication. No attention is given to "live shots" and live reporting.

Also unfinished is that which occasions the book. Pages pass with nothing that substantiates society's viewing of traditional broadcasts on computers and mobile phones. Not explained is the process by which expanding technology preserves live television's transfixing effect. An otherwise exquisite thought process is dogged by the modern mass media's groundswell theme, that new technology affords individuals not one but a million experiences. The relevance of media has shifted from producers to users. Crowded and obscured are the products of entities such as the BBC. As Marriott's premise fades, so does the reason for why, after 60 years, live programs need study now.

The problems notwithstanding, Marriott's effort is somewhat of a feat. Never has live television been better rendered for the mysteries it embodies. It does not invite all readers. But bounding in discourse and synthesis, it stays true to its phenomenological call.

Craig Allen (Ph.D., Ohio University) is an associate professor in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. His research interests include broadcast news, mass media history, and international mass communication.

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