In this book, Hoskins and O'Loughlin demonstrate that television, tarnished by its economy of liveness and its default impositions of immediacy, brevity and simultaneity, fails to deliver a critical and consistent exposition adequate to our conflicting times.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-211) and index.

Television and time -- Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the 'CNN effect' -- Talking terror : political discourses and the 2003 Iraq war -- Television's quagmire : the misremembered and the unforgotten -- The distant body -- Drama and documentary : the power of nightmares -- Security and publics : democratic times? -- The irresolution of television.