Western Broadcasting At The Dawn Of The 21st Century

Broadcasting is an important indicator of a society's political, economical, social, cultural and geographical context. While currently at a crossroads, European broadcasting remains highly diverse due to the fragmentation of national policies. The book introduces the reader to the topic by providing and explaining facts, figures and techniques of analysis. The contributions to the first section of Western Broadcasting examine the general theoretical framework. The articles in the second section map out European media cases. The book's twofold approach is reflected in the accompanying CD-ROM, which also contains examples and hyperlinks.

The main objectives of the series correspond to those of the journal Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, also published by Mouton de Gruyter. The discipline of communication science is concerned with investigation of the structure and function of mass communication processes and their impact on society and social groups. How these processes have an impact on values, knowledge, opinions and behaviour of individuals similarly constitutes an important area of concern for the discipline. The Communications Monograph series emphasizes these concerns of the discipline through publication of books taking a European social science perspective. Inasmuch as mass communication cannot be studied distinct from other modes of communication, the purpose of the Series is to publish material covering other communication forms - intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational - in addition to mass communication. In other words, the Communications Monograph series encompasses the entire field of communication science as its domain of interest. Special attention is addressed to the publication of titles that serve as main texts for academic courses and focus on such topics as communication theory and methodology, mass media and production of mediated messages, media use, reception processes, and media impact, political and marketing communication, advertising, public relations and propaganda, media policy, new media technologies and electronic networks, media history and media development.

CD-ROM includes data about general developments in broadcasting, specific examples and analysis techniques.

The music industry’s ongoing battle against digital piracy is just the latest skirmish in a long conflict over who has the right to distribute music. Starting with music publishers’ efforts to stamp out bootleg compilations of lyric sheets in 1929, Barry Kernfeld’s Pop Song Piracy details nearly a century of disobedient music distribution from song sheets to MP3s. In the 1940s and ’50s, Kernfeld reveals, song sheets were succeeded by fake books, unofficial volumes of melodies and lyrics for popular songs that were a key tool for musicians. Music publishers attempted to wipe out fake books, but after their efforts proved unsuccessful they published their own. Pop Song Piracy shows that this pattern of disobedience, prohibition, and assimilation recurred in each conflict over unauthorized music distribution, from European pirate radio stations to bootlegged live shows. Beneath this pattern, Kernfeld argues, there exists a complex give and take between distribution methods that merely copy existing songs (such as counterfeit CDs) and ones that transform songs into new products (such as file sharing). Ultimately, he contends, it was the music industry’s persistent lagging behind in creating innovative products that led to the very piracy it sought to eliminate.

Private Television in Western Europe: Content, Markets, Policies describes, analyses and evaluates the phenomenon of private television in Europe, clustered around the themes of European and national experiences, content and markets, and policies.

Media policy issues sit at the heart of the structure and functioning of media systems in Europe and beyond. This book brings together the work of a range of leading media policy scholars to provide inroads to a better understanding of how effective media policies can be developed to ensure a healthy communication sector that contributes to the wellbeing of individual citizens, as well as a more democratic society. Faced with a general atmosphere of disillusionment in the European project, one of the core questions tackled by the volume’s contributors is: what scope is there for European media policy that can exist beyond the national level? Uniquely, the volume’s chapters are structured around four key policy themes: media convergence; the continued role and position of public regulatory intervention in media policy; policy issues arising from the development of new electronic communication network environments; and lessons for European media policy from cases beyond the EU. In its chapters, the volume provides enriched understandings of the role and significance of policy actors, institutions, structures, instruments and processes in communication and media policy.

Western Media Systems offers a critical introduction to media systems in North America and Western Europe. The book offers a wide-ranging survey of comparative media analysis addressing the economic, social, political, regulatory and cultural aspects of Western media systems. Jonathan Hardy takes a thematic approach, guiding the reader through critical issues and debates, introducing key concepts and specialist literature. Western Media Systems is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying comparative and global media.

Public service media (PSM) have been the mainstay of Western European broadcasting for a number of decades. Yet despite a general political consensus in favour of PSM, recent technological, economic and political changes have led to a questioning of their value. This new collection of essays explores the history of PSM in selected European countries, from their early establishment as the main media in many countries to charting their transformation and evolution in recent years. The contributions consider the political, economic and market-integration issues that impact PSM, while also highlighting the importance of the ideology that originally accompanied PSM in its initial years, to see how relevant they are in the contemporary world. The book consists of two complementary parts: Part I: Theoretical Aspects and Global Influences on Public Service Media in Europe Part II: A Comparative Analysis of Public Service Media across Europe With contributions from leading experts, the first part offers a thorough examination of the current concepts and conditions that influence PSM in Europe. The second offers a comparative study of PSM in several European countries including France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Offering the most comprehensive study of the field to date, Public Service Media in Europe will be useful for students and researchers in public media, political communication, international and comparative media.