Social Tragedy The Poer of Myth, Ritual, and Emotion in the Ne Media Ecology [Paperback]

A social tragedy is a collective representation of injustice. Baker demonstrates how social tragedies facilitate moral action and discusses a series of contemporary case studies  the death of Princess Diana, Zin?dine Zidane's 2006 World Cup scandal, KONY 2012  to examine their social and political effects.Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Plato's Challenge 2. What is Social Tragedy? 3. Performing Social Tragedy: Exploring the new British spirit a Decade Beyond the Death of Princess Diana 4. Recalling Social Tragedy: Staging Zin?dine Zidane's Transgression on France's Postcolonial Arena 5. Mediating Social Tragedy: The 2011 English Riots and the Emergence of the mediated crowd 6. Mediation as Moral Education: KONY 2012 - Can Social Tragedies Teach? 7. Conclusion: Social Tragedy's Democratic Vision References Notes Index

Social Tragedy illuminates the contours of late modernity by reviving and revitalizing the social ethics of Plato and Aristotle as a means of understanding our commitments and vulnerabilities enacted through the rituals in which we find ourselves, as participants and spectators. Baker's achievements in this book are immense, linking our media-mediated experiences with classic imagery in an accessible text as thoughtful as it is insightful. - Jack Barbalet, Chair Professor in Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR China

Philosophically sophisticated and political relevant Baker's book includes a dizzying array of case studies that fascinate and surprise, from the death of Diana Princess of Wales to Zinedine Zidane's coup de boule. A wonderful read offering a new repertoire of ideas to understand the relationship between the tragic and social life. - Les Back, Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

Social tragedy is usually mediated through pity and fear. The disturbing dislocation in order which is the raw nub of tragedy is hijacked and used asls-