ABSTRACT
The documentary’s compilation of visual history parallels the rise of television to the nation’s dominant medium by providing an image bank of around 2500 still pictures and clips that, broadly estimated, project some 10,000 generic visual symbols.1 Of these, roughly 200 constitute icons when evaluated not by individual standards of visual literacy, but by the visual and verbal presentation of the documentary. Only twenty-three of them are cast on multiple occasions, refl ecting the documentary’s limited restaging of the historical iconization of these visual symbols, that is, how and on what occasions they became known to American audiences. By contrast, there are fewer emblems and their historical status is neither specifi cally introduced nor mentioned in any way. The implication is that all modern viewers of the documentary are familiar with the communicative history of the featured emblems, and that their semantic fi eld has not been subject to any signifi cant changes. The American fl ag is the most frequently depicted emblem, followed by army helicopters, the White House, the Capitol building, the UN building in New York, an array of emblematic references to Washington’s Mall, and those standing for the national government, for example, the emblem decorating the presidential lectern. The latter symbol, as well as most castings of the fl ag, often relate with a series of symbols that have previously been defi ned as the insignia of the spectacle, such as shots of television and other cameras, the general audience and individual spectators, and camera fl ashes. When combined to forge an emblematic depiction of the broadcast spectacle, together with the icons whose stage they set, they represent almost 10% of all the featured visual symbols, meaning that much of the compiled historical imagery projects highly elaborated signifi cance to those possessing the corresponding visual literacy.
