Combining institutional textual and audience analysis, this book introduces students to the factors which have shaped televisions development in contemporary Europe, and invites them to assess the issues that are at stake in its future.
Divided into three parts, the book moves from the European broadcasting environment, through current patterns and trends in programming and programme making, to TV genres and issue-specific broadcasting.
Incorporating a range of pedagogical devices: boxes of key facts, activities and notes for further reading, Television across Europe offers an essential introductory guide to television in Western Europe.
List of Contributors vii Preface ix Jan Wieten Graham Murdock Peter Dahlgren Part I Television Environments: Traditions and Transitions 1(58) Introduction 3(4) Peter Dahlgren The Status of TV Broadcasting in Europe 7(16) Kees Brants Els De Bens Key Trends in European Television 23(12) Peter Dahlgren Digital Futures: European Television in the Age of Convergence 35(24) Graham Murdock Part II Television Trends: Organization and Representation 59(76) Introduction 61(4) Graham Murdock Programming and Channel Competition in European Televsion 65(19) Taisto Hujanen Popular Drama: Travelling Templates and National Fictions 84(10) Albert Moran Programme Making Across Borders: the Eurosud news magazine 94(19) Aurelie Laborde Michel Perrot Television Audiences 113(22) Winfried Schulz Part III Television Genres: Borders and Flows 135(118) Introduction 137(4) Jan Wieten Music Television: MTV-Europe 141(17) Keith Roe Gust De Meyer Arts Television: Questions of Culture 158(17) Marit Bakke Breakfast Television: Infotainers at Daybreak 175(23) Jan Wieten Talk Shows: Democratic Debates and Tabloid Tales 198(23) Graham Murdock Television Current Affairs: The Case of Northern Ireland 221(15) Greg McLaughlin Television News: The Case of the French Road Blockades 236(17) Sari Nasi References 253(16) Index 269
Peter Dahlgren is Principal Lecturer in the Department of Journalism, Media and Communications at the University of Stockholm. He is the author or editor of numerous works in Swedish and of two books in English, both of which he edited with Colin Sparks: Communication and Citizenship (Sage, 1991) and Journalism and Popular Culture (Sage, 1992).
