ABSTRACT
The ceremony, combining the original ritual or event, its endorsements by state authorities, and the crowds' response to this endorsement is adopted by television which transcribes it into a framed text. The televised text is attracted into a diaspora of home-based ceremonies which include those organized by foreign spectators in their homes. This chapter describes the endorsement of the event by the on-the-spot audience; the endorsements of the event by the national television networks, be they state television, public service television, or commercial networks. It also discusses the endorsements of the event by networks representing other countries. The main characteristic of television coverage seems to impose on ritual events, or on news events endowed with symbolic value, the aesthetics of narrative fiction. The fact of simultaneous retransmission leads to a built-in ambiguity, to a fundamental polysemy of the displayed ritual. The attempt to fictionalize the event also manifests itself through a characteristic inflection of the ceremonial domain.
