The on-going constitutionalization of Europe has led to various changes in media and communications, opening up areas of debate regarding the role of traditional and new media in developing a ...specific European public sphere as part of the wider European Project. This timely volume addresses the little understood relationship between old and new media, communications policy at the European level, issues of regulation and competition within the EU, the role of the European Parliament in media policymaking, and the questions emerging about the sustainability of traditional public service broadcasting. To understand the concrete significance of these debates two contributions address specific practical areas, i.e. the potential of online environments and specific developments in European media contexts, such as channel strategies, web-related services, iDTV and community networks. Consequently, Mediating Europe provides an original and important contribution to understanding the role of the media in shaping a European public sphere.
In a complex and changing communication environment public service broadcasting is being subject to increasing scrutiny. Using a series of exemplars from various information society programmes, this ...paper explores the social relations of a new communication environment, audience participation and public service values in the reconfiguration of new media forms in the European Union. These developments require a new analytical framework of a new public service communication environment which enables us to identify ‘reconfiguring’ forms of media, constituted from both traditional and new media. Our mapping of new, traditional and reconfiguring forms of media helps us to identify under what circumstances and institutional conditions the public service ethos is being sustained and rethought.
