Cover -- Media Spectacle -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- 1. Media Culture and the Triumph of the Spectacle -- Guy Debord and the Society of the Spectacle -- The Infotainment Society and Technocapitalism -- From Media Culture to Media Spectacle -- Signs of the Times -- Cultural Studies as Diagnostic Critique -- 2. Commodity Spectacle: Mcdonald's as Global Culture -- Mcdonald's and Mcdonaldization -- Theorizing Mcdonald's: A Multiperspectivist Approach -- Mcdonald's Between the Global and the Local -- Mcdonald's Between the Modern and the Postmodern -- Criticizing/Resisting the Mcdonald's Spectacle -- The Case Against Mcdonald's -- Evaluating Mcdonaldization -- The Personal and the Political -- 3. The Sports Spectacle, Michael Jordan, and Nike -- The Sports Spectacle -- The Spectacle of Michael Jordan -- Michael Jordan and the Sports/Race Spectacle -- Michael Jordan, Nike, and the Commodity Spectacle -- Third Coming, Sex Scandals, and the Contradictions of the Spectacle -- Contradictions of Michael Jordan -- Reading Jordan Critically -- 4. Megaspectacle: The O. J. Simpson Murder Trial -- Murder and Media Spectacle in Brentwood -- Spectacle Culture and the Social Construction of Reality -- The Verdict and the Aftermath -- The Simpson Spectacle, Identity Politics, and Postmodernization -- Identity and Identity Politics -- The Simpson Effect: Contradictions of a Megaspectacle -- 5. TV Spectacle: Aliens, Conspiracies, and Biotechnology in the X-Files -- Conspiracy, Paranoia, and Postmodern Aesthetics in the X-Files -- Series Television as Social Critique: "Trust No One" -- The Postmodern Sublime, or "Is the Truth Out There"? -- Postmodern Deconstruction: "I Want to Believe" but … -- Nothing Important Happened Today … Except That Everything Changed -- Representing the Unrepresentable -- 6. Presidential Politics, the Movie.

Jfk, the Movie -- Lbj and Nixon: Bad Movies -- Ford and Carter: Indifferent Presidencies and Poor Spectacle -- Ronald Reagan, the Acting President -- Bush I, Mixed Spectacle, Failed Presidency -- The Clinton Spectacle -- Bush II, Grand Theft 2000, and Terror War -- Conclusion: Democratic Politics and Spectacle Culture in the New Millennium -- References -- Index.

During the mid-1990s, the O.J. Simpson murder trial dominated the media in the United States and were circulated throughout the world via global communications networks. The case became a spectacle of race, gender, class and violence, bringing in elements of domestic melodrama, crime drama and legal drama. According to this fascinating new book, the Simpson case was just one example of what the author calls 'media spectacle' - a form of media culture that puts contemporary dreams, nightmares, fantasies and values on display. Through the analysis of several such media spectacles - including Elvis, The X Files, Michael Jordan, and the Bill Clinton sex scandals - Doug Kellner draws out important insights into media, journalism, the public sphere and politics in an era of new technologies. In this excellent follow up to his best selling Media Culture, Kellner's fascinating new volume delivers an informative read for students of sociology, culture and media.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.