Daniel Dayan
Encyclopedia
Daniel Dayan is a social scientist born in Casablanca. He is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris and a fellow of the Marcel Mauss Institute (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales). Dayan studied at the Sorbonne, Stanford University, and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He holds degrees in Anthropology, Comparative literature, semiotics, film studies, and received a Ph. D in Aesthetics under the direction of Roland Barthes.
Dayan has been a lecturer, visiting professor and professor in media sociology and film at numerous universities including Paris II, Paris III- Sorbonne Nouvelle; Jerusalem; Tel Aviv; Stanford; Moscow-RGGU, Milano-IULM, Milano Statale; Liège; The University of Southern California; The Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris; The University of Oslo; The University of Geneva; The University of Pennsylvania.
In 1975–76, Dayan was invited to join The American Film Institute ‘s Research and publication committee. From 1999 to 2004 he was a member of the European Science Foundation Media Research program; In 2000 he was a resident of the Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio. In 2001, he served as a foreign expert on media studies for the British “Research Assessment Exercise”. In 2005 he was invited as a resident fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, and as an Annenberg Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006 he was the free speech visiting professor at the University of Bergen. In 2007- 2009, he was Hans Speier visiting professor at the New school for Social Research, New York.
Dayan has been a translator, a journal editor, and a media commentator, in print and on screen. He took part in two documentaries and contributed chapters to about seventy books or journals. His most recent books are La Terreur spectacle: Terrorisme et Télévision (Paris. INA De Boek, 2006 translated into Portuguese in 2009 ); Televisao,, Das Audiencias aos Publicos ( with Jose Carlos Abrantes, Lisboa, Livros Horizonte, 2006 ); Owning the Olympics. Narratives of the New China (with Monroe Price, N Y, Michigan University Press, 2008 ).
Dayan is co-author of the 1992 book Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History with American sociologist Elihu Katz
. Daniel Schorr
of National Public Radio hailed the book as "a feat of scholarship about a medium that tends to defy scholarship.". In the mid-1970s, inspired by Anwar Sadat
’s peace-making initiative, Dayan and Katz began assembling a library of those live broadcasts of historic occasions that enthralled a whole nation, or the world. Support for this research came from the Markle Foundation
and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California where Dayan and Katz taught at the time. Their 1992 book, Media Events is now in print in eight languages.
Dayan is currently a visiting professor in The New School
's department of Political Science.
Dayan has been a lecturer, visiting professor and professor in media sociology and film at numerous universities including Paris II, Paris III- Sorbonne Nouvelle; Jerusalem; Tel Aviv; Stanford; Moscow-RGGU, Milano-IULM, Milano Statale; Liège; The University of Southern California; The Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris; The University of Oslo; The University of Geneva; The University of Pennsylvania.
In 1975–76, Dayan was invited to join The American Film Institute ‘s Research and publication committee. From 1999 to 2004 he was a member of the European Science Foundation Media Research program; In 2000 he was a resident of the Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio. In 2001, he served as a foreign expert on media studies for the British “Research Assessment Exercise”. In 2005 he was invited as a resident fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, and as an Annenberg Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006 he was the free speech visiting professor at the University of Bergen. In 2007- 2009, he was Hans Speier visiting professor at the New school for Social Research, New York.
Dayan has been a translator, a journal editor, and a media commentator, in print and on screen. He took part in two documentaries and contributed chapters to about seventy books or journals. His most recent books are La Terreur spectacle: Terrorisme et Télévision (Paris. INA De Boek, 2006 translated into Portuguese in 2009 ); Televisao,, Das Audiencias aos Publicos ( with Jose Carlos Abrantes, Lisboa, Livros Horizonte, 2006 ); Owning the Olympics. Narratives of the New China (with Monroe Price, N Y, Michigan University Press, 2008 ).
Dayan is co-author of the 1992 book Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History with American sociologist Elihu Katz
Elihu Katz
Elihu Katz is an American and Israeli sociologist.-Biography:Katz has spent most of a lifetime in research on communication, his main focus being the interplay between media, conversation, opinion, and action in the public sphere...
. Daniel Schorr
Daniel Schorr
Daniel Louis Schorr was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio...
of National Public Radio hailed the book as "a feat of scholarship about a medium that tends to defy scholarship.". In the mid-1970s, inspired by Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
’s peace-making initiative, Dayan and Katz began assembling a library of those live broadcasts of historic occasions that enthralled a whole nation, or the world. Support for this research came from the Markle Foundation
Markle Foundation
The Markle Foundation is an organization concerned with technology, health care, and national security.Emerging communications media and information technology create unprecedented opportunity to improve people's lives. The Markle Foundation works to realize this potential and promotes the use of...
and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California where Dayan and Katz taught at the time. Their 1992 book, Media Events is now in print in eight languages.
Dayan is currently a visiting professor in The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
's department of Political Science.
Past work
Dayan’s work is characterized by an emphasis on visual forms and mass media. It covers three interrelated areas. (1) the aesthetics of cinema (2) the anthropology of television, (3) the sociology of journalism.- As a film theorist, Dayan analyzed the modes of construction of the spectator in classical cinema. His first essays deal with film apparatus and the question of « suture ». Often reprinted, « The tutor code of classical cinema »(1974) has exerted a strong influence on British and American traditions in film theory
- As an anthropologist of television, Dayan analyzed the emergence of ritual forms specific to mass society. Conducted in collaboration with Elihu KatzElihu KatzElihu Katz is an American and Israeli sociologist.-Biography:Katz has spent most of a lifetime in research on communication, his main focus being the interplay between media, conversation, opinion, and action in the public sphere...
and drawing on Erwin Goffman, Victor Turner, Walter Benjamin, his research on ritual processes in the age of electronic transmissions, won the ICA Fellows Award , 2010 - As a media sociologist, Dayan has explored the links between reception studies and the formation of public opinion. Focusing on those publics that deliberately seek attention by staging « expressive events », Dayan discussed the dramatic strategies developed by such « performing Publics », and proposed a general typology of publics in terms of the nature and visibility of their performances.
Current work: attention, visibility, regard
Dayan’s current work is concerned with understanding the role of media in managing social attention. His ethnographic explorations of granting, denying or imposing attention in situations of conflict, controversy, or terrorism are conducted in parallel with a reflexion on the status of visibility in contemporary societies. Three major modalities of visibility are discussed such as « Appearing » , « Witnessing » and finally « Monstrating » (from the Latin verb ‘monstrare’ : to show ): a notion that stresses the practices and « gazing acts » which structure visibility in the fields of journalism , television, and cinema.External links
- The New School Department of Political Science - biography.
- Centre d'etude des Mouvements Sociaux - Dayan's bibliography in French, listing of Dayan's publications.
- About Owning the Olympics - detailed summary of "Owning the Olympics."