Media And Cultural Policy In The European Union

摘要

Questions of media and culture are at the heart of the European project. If the EU is to become an integrated partnership with its own sense of identity, then culture must be of central importance to that process, and the media will form not just the crucial linking networks but also a principal means by which the various audiences are addressed as Europeans. On the other side of the coin, it is cultural conflict and the media's role in cultural expansion that are frequently seen as a threat. Both points serve to emphasise how timely this book is. As the title makes clear, this book covers a wide area. Some of the 11 chapters are concerned mainly with media issues (such as David Hutchison's essay on the EU and the press), others are on more purely cultural questions (such as the contribution by Elisabeth Dumont and Jacques Teller on cultural tourism), but in many the two aspects intertwine, in discussions on such topics as public service broadcasting, state aid to the film industry, and media policy in relation to the eastern enlargment of the EU. Overall, it is a very useful collection (although it would have been even more useful had an index been provided). Two major themes emerge in these chapters - the problems of European legislation, especially in the media and cultural spheres, and the conflicts between culture and commercialisation. Generally, the writers take a pessimistic view of both problems. In their essay on state aid to film industries, Caroline Pauwels, Sophie de Vinck and Ben van Rompuy note the problems caused, on the one hand, by vague legal concepts leading to uncertain interpretations, and, on the other hand, by the complexity of the interactions among the various stakeholders. In writing on concentration of ownership and pluralism in the media, Gillian Doyle notes the EU's history of inaction. Similarly, Hutchison discusses the EU's failure to develop press policy, with the consequence that when issues of press freedom and press conduct arise, there is no co-ordinated European response (the controversy caused by the Danish cartoons of Muhammad provides him with a topical example).