De-Stalinization = De-Regulation?: Eastern European Mass Media

Articles on the passage from the state/party controlled monopolies of Eastern European nations to the commodified systems post-1989. Everyone should read these articles as background for preparing their presentations.

Kevin Williams - "The Media in Eastern Europe"

from European Media Studies
Splichal, "From State Control to Commodification: Media Democratisation in East and Central Europe"
Sparks & Reading, "Re-regulating Television After Communism: A Comparative Analysis of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic"

You can find the assignment for your class presentation here. Please consult one another as I would like to set up groups of 2 students to present on individual nations.

European Mass Media: Deregulation, Commodification and Neo-Television

Here are a number of articles to think through some of the more specific issues on the paradigm shift in European Broadcasting since the 1980s and on through the 1990s and the consequent shift toward deregulation and privatization. The Ginsborg and Hibberd articles are specifically on the 'Italian case'. The articles by Umberto Eco and Raymond Williams are two theoretical and critical reflections on the repercussions, both aesthetic and formal, of liberalization on content, programs and audiences. Relate these readings to our screening of Maurizio Nichetti's The Icicle Thief (Ladri di Saponette).

Humphreys, "The 'New Media' and Broadcasting Deregulation in Western Europe"

Williams, "Public Service and the Deregulation of European Broadcasting"

Paul Ginsborg, "The Making of a Television Empire"
from Ginsborg's Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power, Patrimony (Verso, 2005)

Matthew Hibberd, "Conflicts of Interest and Media Pluralism in Italian Broadcasting"

from Bull & Rhodes, Italy: A Contested Polity (Routledge, 2009)

Umberto Eco, "A Guide to the Neo-Television of the 1980s"

Raymond Williams, "Programming: Distribution and Flow"

from Williams, Television: Technology and Cultural Form (Routledge, 1990)

An article from The Economist, with an eloquent title if there ever was one: "The Man Who Screwed an Entire Country". Find the editorial here. This was published during the crisis of the last Berlusconi government.

Please note that The Economist is the most respected European business weekly whose stance on economic policy can only be characterized as staunchly pro-business and pro-capitalism --in short the magazine is regarded as predominantly very conservative.

I point this out primarily to underline how basic thinking on the role, function and values of the mass media --particularly of the press-- manages to cross ideological lines. This puts the so-called Italian anomaly into perspective as an issue which is ultimately a populist and bipartisan one and not tied to specific ideological perspectives.

National Cinemas, Art Films, American Friends and Cultural Imperialism or, What's Wrong With A Cowboy in Hamburg?

What's wrong with a cowboy in Hamburg?
"The Americans have colonized our subconscious" (Wenders in "Kings of the Road")

Readings for this week's discussion on the concept of National Cinema, the Art Film and Wim Wenders' Der Amerikanische Freund (1977)

Bordwell, "The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice" from Poetics of Cinema
Elsaesser, "American Friends: Hollywood Echoes in the New German Cinema"
Jarvie, "Free Trade as Cultural Threat: American Film and TV Exports in the Post-War Period"

Here is a mainstream review of the film from everyone's (late) favorite middle-brow film critic, Roger Ebert.

__________________________________________________

Midterm Quiz Study Guide here.

'Free' or 'Pirate' Media?

Below is Hans Magnus Enzensberger's "Constituents of a Theory of the Media" where he discusses the concepts of 'emancipatory vs. repressive uses' of the media while offering a radical critique of traditional progressive conceptions of public/state media in favor of the 'new media' potentials of 'free' media. Hesmondalgh's article is a general reflection on the concept of alternative media, it's organization and the specific textual production.

Roger Chapman's article is a comparative analysis of the two main British 'pirate' radio stations, Radio London and Radio Caroline and how they differentiated themselves on the basis of their attitude toward commercialism and their mission.

Finally, John Downing writes on 'radical media' in Italy covering a number of activist situations and their use of new communication technologies by political movements during the late '60s and early '70s. This last article will be the clearest contextualization of Marco Tullio Giordana's I Cento Passi and will also be important as an introduction to the Luciana Castellina/Daniele Segre event on June 17 (Castellina was one of the founders of the daily newspaper il manifesto).

Something to think about in relation to I Cento Passi is how Peppino Impastato's attempts at carving out a space for communication and direct political action (a public sphere within the confines of a small community dominated by organized crime and their ties to the political realm) is dramatized in the film --from traditional political rallies to 'free radio' after navigating dadaist street theater, pamphleteering, film screenings and be-ins. Think specifically of the characteristics of RadioAut --programming, control, voice, 'mission', etc.

Hesmondalgh, "Alternative Media, Alternative Texts?"
Enzensberger, "Constituents of a Theory of the Media"
Chapman, "The 1960s Pirates: A Comparative Analysis of Radio Caroline and Radio London"

Downing, "Radical Media in Italy" from Radical Media

Public Service Broadcasting: Ises and Oughts

Here are the final readings for this week. Concentrate your reflections on the concept of PSB (public service broadcasting), it's features, criteria and justifications.

from Humphreys, Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe
Chapter 3: Press Concentration in Western Europe
Chapter 4: European Public-Service Broadcasting System

Richard Collins, "'Ises' and 'Oughts': Public Service Broadcasting in Europe"
from Allen & Hill (eds), The Television Studies Reader (Routledge, 2004)

European Societies and Media Cultures

from Humphreys, Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe
Intro + Chapter 1: Press Freedom: The Free Market and the Development of the Modern Press
Chapter 2: Press Freedom and its Limits: The State, the Law and the Private Individual
from Williams, European Media Studies
Chapter 1: The European Media Landscape
Chapter 2: The Press in Europe

Welcome to Summer I 2013

Welcome to Summer I: for this session the blog is exclusively dedicated to the CMS 315 European Mass Media class. Please check back often to find readings, bits of information from across the network together with breaking news and current issues that we can use for class discussion.

De-Stalinization = De-Regulation?: Eastern European Mass Media

Articles on the passage from the state/party controlled monopolies of Eastern European nations to the commodified systems post-1989. Everyone should read these articles as background for preparing their presentations.

Kevin Williams - "The Media in Eastern Europe"

from European Media Studies
Splichal, "From State Control to Commodification: Media Democratisation in East and Central Europe"
Sparks & Reading, "Re-regulating Television After Communism: A Comparative Analysis of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic"

European Mass Media: Deregulation, Commodification and Neo-Television

Here are a number of articles to think through some of the more specific issues on the paradigm shift in European Broadcasting during the 1980s and 1990s and the consequent shift toward deregulation and privatization. The Ginsborg and Hibberd articles are specifically on the 'Italian case'. The articles by Umberto Eco and Raymond Williams are two theoretical and critical reflections on the aesthetic repercussions of liberalization on both programs and audiences. Relate these readings to our screening of Maurizio Nichetti's The Icicle Thief (Ladri di Saponette).

Humphreys, "The 'New Media' and Broadcasting Deregulation in Western Europe"

Williams, "Public Service and the Deregulation of European Broadcasting"

Paul Ginsborg, "The Making of a Television Empire"
from Ginsborg's Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power, Patrimony (Verso, 2005)

Matthew Hibberd, "Conflicts of Interest and Media Pluralism in Italian Broadcasting"

from Bull & Rhodes, Italy: A Contested Polity (Routledge, 2009)

Umberto Eco, "A Guide to the Neo-Television of the 1980s"

Raymond Williams, "Programming: Distribution and Flow"

from Williams, Television: Technology and Cultural Form (Routledge, 1990)

This just in:

From this week's The Economist, an article on Italy with an eloquent title if there ever was one: "The Man Who Screwed an Entire Country". Find the editorial here.

Please note that The Economist is the most respected European business weekly whose stance on economic policy can only be characterized as fanatically pro-business and pro-capitalism --in short the magazine is regarded as predominantly very conservative.

I point this out primarily to underline how basic thinking on the role, function and values of the mass media --particularly of the press-- manages to cross ideological lines. This puts the so-called Italian anomaly into perspective as an issue which is ultimately a populist and bipartisan one and not tied to specific ideological perspectives.

National Cinemas, Art Films, American Friends and Cultural Imperialism or, What's Wrong With A Cowboy in Hamburg?

What's wrong with a cowboy in Hamburg?
"The Americans have colonized our subconscious" (Wenders in "Kings of the Road")

Readings for this week's discussion on the concept of National Cinema, the Art Film and Wim Wenders' Der Amerikanische Freund (1977)

Bordwell, "The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice" from Poetics of Cinema
Elsaesser, "American Friends: Hollywood Echoes in the New German Cinema"
Jarvie, "Free Trade as Cultural Threat: American Film and TV Exports in the Post-War Period"

Here is a mainstream review of the film from everyone's favorite middle-brow film critic, Roger Ebert.

'Free' or 'Pirate' Media?

Below is Hans Magnus Enzensberger's "Constituents of a Theory of the Media" where he discusses the concepts of 'emancipatory vs. repressive uses' of the media while offering a radical critique of traditional progressive conception of public/state media in favor of the 'new media' potentials of 'free' media. Hesmondalgh's article is a general reflection on the concept of alternative media, it's organization and the specific textual production.

Roger Chapman's article is a comparative analysis of the two main British 'pirate' radio stations, Radio London and Radio Caroline and how they differentiated themselves on the basis of their attitude to commercialism and their mission.

Finally John Downing writes on 'radical media' in Italy covering a number of activist situations and their use of new communication technologies by political movements during the late '60s and early '70s. This last article will be the clearest contextualization of Marco Tullio Giordana'sI Cento Passi.

Something to think about in relation to I Cento Passi is how Peppino Impastato's attempts at carving out a space for communication and direct political action (a public sphere within the confines of a small community dominated by organized crime and their ties to the political realm) is dramatized in the film --from traditional political rallies to 'free radio' after navigating dadaist street theater, pamphleteering, film screenings and be-ins. Think specifically of the characteristics of RadioAut --programming, control, voice, 'mission', etc.

Hesmondalgh, "Alternative Media, Alternative Texts?"
Enzensberger, "Constituents of a Theory of the Media"
Chapman, "The 1960s Pirates: A Comparative Analysis of Radio Caroline and Radio London"

Downing, "Radical Media in Italy" from Radical Media

Public Service Broadcasting: Ises and Oughts

Here are the final readings for this week. Concentrate your reflections on the concept of PSB (public service broadcasting), it's features, criteria and justifications.

from Humphreys, Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe
Chapter 3: Press Concentration in Western Europe
Chapter 4: European Public-Service Broadcasting System

Richard Collins, "'Ises' and 'Oughts': Public Service Broadcasting in Europe"
from Allen & Hill (eds), The Television Studies Reader (Routledge, 2004)

European Societies and Media Culture

from Humphreys, Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe
Intro + Chapter 1: Press Freedom: The Free Market and the Development of the Modern Press
Chapter 2: Press Freedom and its Limits: The State, the Law and the Private Individual

from Williams, European Media Studies
Chapter 1: The European Media Landscape
Chapter 2: The Press in Europe

Welcome To Summer I 2011

Welcome to Summer I: for this session the blog is exclusively dedicated to the CMS 315 European Mass Media class. Please check back often to find readings, bits of information taken from the internet together with breaking news and current issues that we can use for class discussion.

Eastern European Mass Media

Articles on the passage from the state/party controlled monopolies of Eastern European nations to the commodified systems post-1989. Everyone should read these articles as background for preparing their presentations.

Kevin Williams - "The Media in Eastern Europe"

from European Media Studies
Splichal, "From State Control to Commodification: Media Democratisation in East and Central Europe"
Sparks & Reading, "Re-regulating Television After Communism: A Comparative Analysis of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic"

European Mass Media: Deregulation, Commodification and Neo-Television

Here are two articles to think through some of the more specific issues on the paradigm shift in European Broadcasting during the 1980s and 1990s and the shift toward deregulation and privatization. The articles by Umberto Eco and Raymond Williams are two theoretical and critical reflections on the aesthetic repercussions of liberalization on both programs and audiences. Relate these readings to Nichetti's The Icicle Thief (Ladri di Saponette).

Humphreys, "The 'New Media' and Broadcasting Deregulation in Western Europe"

Williams, "Public Service and the Deregulation of European Broadcasting"

Umberto Eco, "A Guide to the Neo-Television of the 1980s"

Raymond Williams, "Programming: Distribution and Flow"

from Television: Technology and Cultural Form

National Cinemas, Art Films, American Friends and Cultural Imperialism or, What's Wrong With A Cowboy in Hamburg?

What's wrong with a cowboy in Hamburg?
"The Americans have colonized our subconscious" (Wenders in "Kings of the Road")

Readings for this week's discussion on the concept of National Cinema, the Art Film and Wim Wenders' Der Amerikanische Freund (1977)

Bordwell, "The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice" from Poetics of Cinema
Elsaesser, "American Friends: Hollywood Echoes in the New German Cinema"
Jarvie, "Free Trade as Cultural Threat: American Film and TV Exports in the Post-War Period"

Here is a mainstream review of the film from everyone's favorite middle-brow film critic, Roger Ebert.

'Free' or 'Pirate' Media?

Below is Hans Magnus Enzensberger's "Constituents of a Theory of the Media" where he discusses the concepts of 'emancipatory vs. repressive uses' of the media while offering a radical critique of traditional progressive conception of public/state media in favor of the 'new media' potentials of 'free' media. Hesmondalgh's article is a general reflection on the concept of alternative media, it's organization and the specific textual production.

Roger Chapman's article is a comparative analysis of the two main British 'pirate' radio stations, Radio London and Radio Caroline and how they differentiated themselves on the basis of their attitude to commercialism and their mission.

Finally John Downing writes on 'radical media' in Italy covering a number of activist situations and their use of new communication technologies by political movements during the late '60s and early '70s. This last article will be the clearest contextualization of Marco Tullio Giordana's I Cento Passi.

Something to think about in relation to I Cento Passi is how Peppino Impastato's attempts at carving out a space for communication and direct political action (a public sphere within the confines of a small community dominated by organized crime and their ties to the political realm) is dramatized in the film --from traditional political rallies to 'free radio' after navigating dadaist street theater, pamphleteering, film screenings and be-ins. Think specifically of the characteristics of RadioAut --programming, control, voice, 'mission', etc.

Hesmondalgh, "Alternative Media, Alternative Texts?"
Enzensberger, "Constituents of a Theory of the Media"
Chapman, "The 1960s Pirates: A Comparative Analysis of Radio Caroline and Radio London"

Downing, "Radical Media in Italy" from Radical Media

The Making of a Media Empire

"The Making of a Television Empire"
from Paul Ginsborg's Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power, Patrimony


Also, from today's New York Times an article on the economic woes of leading French daily newspaper Le Monde. Please read the article for a good example of a major newspaper operating in a commercial context but organized according to very specific principles to safeguard values and principles that are not necessarily economic.

Le Monde Seeks a Financial Savior from the NYT June 2, 2010

+n.b. Apologies for the cancellation today. We will screen I Cento Passi on Monday so those who already have seen the film should definitely be in class tomorrow.

Public Service Broadcasting Systems

These are your reading for the first part of this week. Please concentrate your efforts on the concept of PSB (public service broadcasting), it's features, criteria and justifications.

from Humphreys, Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe
Chapter 3: Press Concentration in Western Europe
Chapter 4: European Public-Service Broadcasting System

Richard Collins, "'Ises' and 'Oughts': Public Service Broadcasting in Europe"
from Allen & Hill (eds), The Television Studies Reader (Routledge, 2004)



Around the issue of media regulation there is a big debate going on (mostly under the radar) concerning the concept of 'net neutrality' and the possibility of imposing specific rules on the internet and according to what aims and goals. Listen to this interview from NPR's Fresh Air program: Terri Gross interviews journalist Amy Schatz, who covers tech policy and the FCC for The Wall Street Journal. Schatz explains the conflicts between the FCC, Internet companies and telecommunications providers like Comcast and Verizon — and how their battle might determine what the future of the Internet will looks. This is a good place to think of how the decisions taken when organizing European broadcasting systems also determined the shape and look of what is in place today.

Link to audio podcast here. On this same page you can find, in a sidebar, links to a number of articles by Schatz covering the issue for the WSJ.
Link to interview transcript here.