European Media in the Digital Age:
Analysis & Approaches
By Richard Rooke
Pearson Education
Distributed By Trans-Atlantic Publications
August 2009
ISBN: 9781405821971
288 pages
$72.50 Paper Original
Description
This introductory textbook for Media and Communication Studies students is designed to encourage observation and evaluation of the European media in the digital age, enabling students to grasp key concepts and gain a broad and clear overview of the area. It also introduces the principal debates, developments (legislative, commercial, political and technological) and issues shaping the European media today, and examines in depth the mass media, digital media, the internet and new media policy. Understanding today’s media scene from print to audiovisual needs a wider view and this book helps make comprehensible the European media within a broader global media landscape.
The text is pedagogically rich and explores a variety of approaches to help the reader gain a better understanding of the European media world. Students are encouraged to start thinking about statistics, relating this to economics, analysing regulations, and combining media theories with theories of European Union integration. The book also includes the use of case studies, illustrations, summaries, critical reflections and directions to wider reading.
The European Media in the Digital Age is recommended for all Media Studies students and is also of key interest to students of Politics and Policy, Business Studies, International Studies and European Studies
Contents
1 The EU and the media - EU media policy and globalisation
Inroduction: the EU and the media in the 21st century
The EU, globalisation
and media
The EU and localisation
Glocalisation
The EU and ‘Europanisation’
Defining and understanding the EU
Europe and the EU: contexts for media policy
The EU institutions, policy-making
and the media
The structure of the EU
Other direct and indirect pressures on the EU media
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
Online resources
References
Appendix
2: Understanding EU media through data - statistics
Introduction: The media and data
Sources
Statistics
Preliminary investigation: are newspapers and print products in decline
in the EU?
The context and the data questions: using qualitative methods
Linear and non-linear
ways of looking at data
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Assigments
Further reading
Online resources
References
3 Understanding EU media through economics
Introduction: economics and the media
The macro and the micro
Supply of and demand of goods
Price and costs (fixed and variable) and equilibrium
Market definitions
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading and references
Online resources
4: EU politics, regulation and media legislation
Introduction: regulation and the regulators
The EU regulatory debate
The European regulatory context
Public vs private
International rules and the EU
EU regulatory development – key areas
Moving on into the 21st century
EU member state national regulation
Regulation, deregulation, self-regulation
and co-regulation
Conclusions and more questions
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
Online resources
References
5: Media theory in the European context
Introduction: using theory
Media theory and European integration
Context: the theories of European integration
and media development – some
contexts
Debates on the EU theories of integration
Media and communication theory
Using theory with research methods
Critical review
Media theory milestones and contemporary debates
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
Online resources
References
6: Production in the EU press and publishing industry
Introduction: The European media landscape – analysing the market
History
and precedents
The 20th century
The contemporary era: the 21st century
Publishing markets and production
The present scene: an indication
Comparative work: finding the variables (the
comparators)
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
Online resources
References
7: The distribution of print and published material
Introduction: the print industry
Distribution
Classic vs new distribution techniques
Distribution: European policy
Distribution: national policies – a comment
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
Online resources
References
8: The consumption of print and published material
Introduction: assessing the material available to researchers for the publishing
industry - the data
Interpretation and judgement
European consumption and trends
Reflections
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Further reading
Online resources
References
9: Audio-visual content in the EU: Production and scheduling (by Andrea Esser)
Introduction: analysing audiovisual programming in the EU
Sources
History and precedents
The 1980s
Changes in content production
Financing
Entertainment on our television screens: production, acquisition,
scheduling
The rise of formats
Other programming trends in the new millennium: added-value,
textual convergence and interactivity
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
Online resources
References
10: The distribution network of the audio-visual in the EU
Introduction: a period of change
Television and radio
Film
Classic vs new distribution techniques
Distribution: European policy
Distribution: national policies
The impact on public sector broadcasting
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
Online resources
References
11: The consumption of audio-visual material in the EU: trends.
Introduction: assessing the material available to researchers for the audio-visual:
industry - the data.
Sources
Consumption: European trends
Consumption: national trends – an indication
EU National statistical
agencies and the public-private divide
The future: a comment
Chapter summary
Key terms
Discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
Online resources
References
Index
· Provides a framework and range of analytical tools to help you apply theory and new forms of statistical analysis to information towards a better understanding of the European media world.
· Chapters include The EU and the Media, Understanding the European Media through Data and Statistics/Economics, Politics, Regulation and Legislation, The Media landscape of Press and Publishing, Media Theory in EU Context
· Highlights similarities and differences between countries in terms of production, distribution and consumption
· 6 themes govern the structure of the chapters to aid analysis – diversity of media, forces for change, complexity, multi-levels, European integrative environment, cultural values
· In-text features include case studies, stop and consider, sources, point of view encourage critical engagement, and key terms, summaries, websites and directions to wider reading to take you further.