ABSTRACT
The general absence of social theorists from among the ranks of so-called experts usually appearing in the media suggests that there is considerable distance to go if we are to become more engaged intellectuals – an engagement that will surely help to offset the sensationalism that almost always characterizes print and televised media coverage of events for which we can legitimately claim some expertise. But lamenting the ever-present sensationalism of tabloid journalism may arise from clinging to the belief that the media is – or somehow ought to be – a neutral purveyor of benign information, an ideal it might better embody if only cooler heads prevailed and we were invited to appear on “Larry King Live.” If the media’s task is indeed simply to communicate generic content and meaningful information – as opposed to providing information in the service of building specific sorts of worlds (i.e, rhetoric or propaganda) – then scholars will likely hang their heads and wring their hands every time a so-called cult expert appears on television, following some unanticipated or shocking event. But if the media, no less than any other institution, functions to assist in the smooth reproduction of an apparently seamless, larger social group by portraying the world in ways conducive to one group’s various interests, then we should expect nothing less from it than to employ common rhetorical devices that assist them in this endeavor.
