Every year there are special events that receive elaborate media coverage and are especially suitable to television. These have included the annual Grey Cup and Superbowl sports spectaculars; winter and summer Olympics; beauty pageants; inaugurations of premiers, prime ministers, and presidents; visits by the Pope and royalty; royal weddings; and rock concerts.

Discuss the following questions with students:

• How well does television cover these events?
  
  
• What are some other examples of such events?
  
  
• To what extent do you feel like a participant in these spectacles?
  
  
• Why do some people claim that the television coverage gives them the feeling of having an experience that is more real than if they were actually present at the event?

Choosing one or more of these events, students should examine them from the following perspectives:

• How the publicity and media hype for these events maintained interest through extensive coverage before and during the event.
  
  
• How these events relate to the ways that ritual functions in our lives, namely, providing us with a sense of continuity, enhancing group solidarity, providing an occasion for the mystery and majesty that are part of human life.
  
  
• How the form of each of these events is rich in the elements of drama, myth, and artful design.
  
  
• How each of these events contains political and ideological messages.

  
  

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