ABSTRACT
When Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz wrote Media Events, their masterful analysis of mass ceremonies of the twentieth century, the emphasis was on the celebratory or cohesion-building qualities of such global incidents. The most dramatic kind of hijacking is asymmetric, where small, seemingly powerless groups gain momentary attention and sometimes enduring strength by storming a platform media event so as instantly to control the narrative. Increasingly, however, issues such as human rights, environmentalism, and even the impact of domestic political choices are seen with respect to their vast transnational implications. The interests and actions of civil society and other groups shift from a national to a global level. In the case of the Olympics, some fundamental problems present themselves. In some Games, the platform has belonged more to the International Olympic Committee, and in some more to the Organizing Committee; in recent Olympics, ownership is increasingly a combination of these two.
