Editors: Sophia Kaitatzi-Whitlock, Alexandros Baltzis.
Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, 2006.
ISBN: 960-12-1571-6.

Synopsis

The process of European integration raises several questions about the contribution of the mass media - "traditional" and new alike. In the domain of the mass communication innovation is not only technological or economic. It is social, political and cultural as well. From this point of view innovations represent at the same time challenges.

Considering the developments observed and the perspective of the integration, what are and what might be the future functions of the mass media? To what extent - if at all - might the new communication resources, the content exchanges across the borders, and the interconnections of any kind among Europeans, contribute not only to the viability of this European project, but to the positive or creative development of the europeanness as well? And could europeanness form the basis of a vision for a common identity that will not exclude cultural diversity, but it will establish this very diversity as a common way of life and co-existence among different people? Is it possible that europeanness might be the means to create more constructive economic and political institutions? To what extent might the new media contribute for the democratization of the various forms of communication and especially for the democratization of the society at large?

These and many other relevant questions are discussed in this volume by 23 researchers from eight countries. Given its international profile, the book offers an outline of certain communication phenomena that appear common for different countries. The reader is also given the opportunity to reflect on the extent to which researchers analyze several aspects of mass communication, its importance and functions on a local and on a European level as well, based on their own specific national and cultural backgrounds.

Contents

Foreword by Margot Wallström

Introduction by the editors

Part I - Public Sphere, Identity, Integration: Innovation and Challenges on the European and Local Level

Eurocrats, Technocrats, and Democrats: Competing Ideologies in the European Information Society

Peter Golding

The Absence of European Identity as a Function of a Lacking Common Public Sphere and the Political Communications Deficit as a Constitutive Component of the European Democratic Deficit

Sophia Kaitatzi-Whitlock

Why is the European Union News off the National Media Agenda?

Anna Panagiotarea

Translating Europeanness to the Europeans, a Common 'Language' in the East and West

Ruxandra Trandafoiu

Politics, Governance and Security: Rhetoric in the European Public Sphere

Stuart Price

BBC as Mediator of the Public Policy. Reconsidering PSB in the Digital Era

Michael Klontzas

Towards the Potentials of Journalistic Risk Communication to the Constitution of a European Public Sphere

Irene Neverla

Internet and the Construction of the European Identity

Marina Rigou

Integration of Baltic Countries with the European Social Space

Peeter Vihalemm

Part II - The Challenges of Infotainment and Tabloidisation

Tabloidisation of News Media: An Analysis of Television News in Turkey

Mine Gencel Bek

Exploring the Ecological Fallacy of the TV Village

Stelios Papathanassopoulos

Televisual Infotainment and Pre-Election Campaigns - The Case of the Greek National Elections in 2004

Giorgos Plios

Children in the News Media

Cristina Ponte

Part III - Innovation and Challenges in the Domains of the Arts and Culture

War of the Screens: The Economic and Cultural Politics of European Cinema

Gregory Paschalidis

The Mirror, the Window and the Exiled Poet: Images of the Self and the Other in European Media

Eirini Papadaki

New Media and the Arts: Interactivity, Non-Linearity and Reconstruction of the Artistic Communication

Alexandros Baltzis

Coping with Audiovisual Plenty on TV and the Virtual Purchase on the Internet

Carmelo Garitaonandía, Emilio Fernández Peña, José Oleaga

Post-Fordism and Post-Modernity: Personalization and Semiotics in the Case of Mass Communication

Ioannis N. Katsikis, Sevastos N. Christofidis

SMS (Short Message System): A New Way of Communication?

Ifigeneia Mylona

Ending

Toward a European Media Sociology

Peter Ludes

Short biographical notes

Abstracts in English

Index