European Culture and the Media (Changing Media, Changing Europe)

The thematic parts of this book and most of the chapters have their basis in a conference in Copenhagen in April 2002 on European Media, Cultural Identities and Cultural Politics. Following another conference in the programme Changing Media - Changing Europe on European Media and Globalization (August 2000) this conference highlighted cultural processes and transformations in European media and the challenges these create for both cultural politics, media institutions and everyday life. The focus was on cultural identities and media at a European level, in national cultures, and the development towards a multi-cultural network society in a more globalized and digitalized media culture. This is clearly reflected in the three parts, and the internal dialogue between chapters in these thematic blocks. Media, Globalization and the European Imaginary focuses on cultural industries and popular culture in a both global and European perspective and seen from both the perspective of communicators and audiences. Citizenship and Cultural Identities on the other hand take us into the very construction of European identities through old and new media and the tensions between different levels of cultural identities. Finally Media Institutions in a Changing Europe looks at institutional policies and strategies trying to cope with the changing European and global scene, both in terms of media politics, political communication and new and more interactive modes of communication.