spectacle |ˈspektək(ə)l| noun
- Media manipulation of the public which creates an autocratic reign over the market economy.
- A visually striking performance or display: the acrobatic feats make a good spectacle: the show is pure spectacle.
- An event or scene regarded in terms of its visual impact: the spectacle of a city’s mass grief.
ORIGIN Middle English: via Old French from Latin spectaculum ‘public show,’from spectare, frequentative of specere ‘to look.’
In Literature
- Guy Debord’s (1931–1994) best-known work, La société du spectacle (The Society of the Spectacle) (1967)
- Debord defines the spectacle as the “autocratic reign of the market economy.” Though the term “mass media” is often used to describe the spectacle’s form, Debord derides its neutrality.