Convergence and Fragmentation

Description

Convergence under pressure leads to fragmentation. Therefore, the role of the newest information and communication technologies and formats in a changing Europe must be analysed not only in terms of optimistic market projections but also in terms of realistic trends toward complementary fragmentations.

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• Media Studies
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Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781841502168
• Langue: English

Extrait

Convergence and Fragmentation
Media Technology and the Information Society
Edited by Peter Ludes
The European Science Foundation (ESF) was established in 1974 to create a common European platform for cross-border cooperation in all aspects of scientific research.
With its emphasis on a multidisciplinary and pan-European approach, the Foundation provides the leadership necessary to open new frontiers in European science.
Its activities include providing science policy advice (Science Strategy); stimulating cooperation between researchers and organizations to explore new directions (Science Synergy); and the administration of externally funded programmes (Science Management). These take place in the following areas: Physical and engineering sciences; Medical sciences; Life, earth and environmental sciences; Humanities; Social sciences; Polar; Marine; Space; Radio astronomy frequencies; Nuclear physics.
Headquartered in Strasbourg with offices in Brussels, the ESF s membership comprises 75 national funding agencies, research performing agencies and academies from 30 European countries.
The Foundation s independence allows the ESF to objectively represent the priorities of all these members.
Convergence and Fragmentation
Media Technology and the Information Society
Edited by Peter Ludes
First Published in the UK in 2008 by Intellect Books, PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK
First published in the USA in 2008 by Intellect Books, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2008 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover Design: Gabriel Solomons Copy Editor: Holly Spradling Typesetting: Mac Style, Nafferton, E. Yorkshire
ISBN 978-1-84150-182-6/EISBN 978-1-84150-216-8
Printed and bound by Gutenberg Press, Malta.
C ONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction: Unity in Diversity
Peter Ludes
Section 1 Culture and Technology
Global and European Information Society
Maria Heller
ePolicies in Europe: A Human-Centric and Culturally Biased Approach
Ursula Maier-Rabler
Section 2 Techno-pleasure
The Cultural Value of Games: Computer Games and Cultural Policy in Europe
Rune Klevjer
Learning and Entertainment in Museums: A Case Study
Ed Tan, Cristina Chisalita, Bas Raijmakers and Katri Oinonen
Section 3 ICT and Learning
For a Communications Approach to the Use of ICT in Education
Bernard Mi ge
E-learning - A Knowledge Theoretical Approach
Lars Qvortrup
Virtual and Flexible University Learning
Knut Lundby P ivi Hovi-Wasastjerna
Section 4 Power, Technology and Policies
Media Governance: Valuable Instrument of Risk Discourse for Media Ownership Concentration
Werner A. Meier
Telecom Liberalization: Distributive Challenges and National Differences
Tanja Storsul
Public Service Television s Mission in France: An Analysis of Media-Policy Instruments - Including the Use of the Internet as a New Distribution Channel
Marcel Machill
About the Contributors
Index
F OREWORD
This volume is the product of a major programme under the title Changing Media - Changing Europe supported by the European Science Foundation (ESF). The ESF is the European association of national organizations responsible for the support of scientific research. Established in 1974, the Foundation currently has seventy-six Member Organizations (research councils, academies and other national scientific institutions) from twenty-nine countries. This programme is the first to be sponsored by both the Social Sciences and the Humanities Standing Committees of the ESF, and this unique cross-disciplinary organization reflects the very broad and central concerns which have shaped the Programme s work. As co-chairpersons of the Programme it was our great delight to bring together many of the very best scholars from across the continent, but also across the disciplinary divides which so often fragment our work, to enable stimulating, innovative, and profoundly important debates addressed to understanding some of the most fundamental and critical aspects of contemporary social and cultural life.
The study of the media in Europe forces us to try to understand the major institutions which foster understanding and participation in modern societies. At the same time we have to recognize that these societies themselves are undergoing vital changes, as political associations and alliances, demographic structures, the worlds of work, leisure, domestic life, mobility, education, politics and communications themselves are all undergoing important transformations. Part of that understanding, of course, requires us not to be too readily seduced by the magnitude and brilliance of technological changes into assuming that social changes must comprehensively follow. A study of the changing media in Europe, therefore, is indeed a study of changing Europe. Research on media is closely linked to questions of economic and technological growth and expansion, but also to questions of public policy and the state, and more broadly to social, economic and cultural issues.
To investigate these very large debates the Programme was organised around four key questions. The first deals with the tension between citizenship and consumerism, that is the relation between media, the public sphere and the market; the challenges facing the media, cultural policy and the public service media in Europe. The second area of work focuses on the dichotomy and relation between culture and commerce, and the conflict in media policy caught between cultural aspirations and commercial imperatives. The third question deals with the problems of convergence and fragmentation in relation to the development of media technology on a global and European level. This leads to questions about the concepts of the information society, the network society etc., and to a focus on new media such as the internet and multimedia, and the impact of these new media on society, culture, and our work, education and everyday life. The fourth field of inquiry is concerned with media and cultural identities and the relationship between processes of homogenization and diversity. This explores the role of media in everyday life, questions of gender, ethnicity, lifestyle, social differences, and cultural identities in relation to both media audiences and media content.
In each of the books arising from this exciting Programme we expect readers to learn something new, but above all to be provoked into fresh thinking, understanding and inquiry, about how the media and Europe are both changing in novel, profound, and far reaching ways that bring us to the heart of research and discussion about society and culture in the twenty-first century.
Ib Bondebjerg Peter Golding
I NTRODUCTION: U NITY IN D IVERSITY
Peter Ludes
In this book, media specialists from the humanities and social sciences have integrated empirical evidence on technological, economic, social, political and cultural trends with models of explaining changing media as a prime interpreter of changing Europe. The contradictory tendencies of convergence and fragmentation are tied to the question of whether we are really moving into a new European Information Society. The EU defined convergence in general as the ability of different platforms to carry similar kinds of services, or the coming together of consumer devices such as telephone, television and personal computer. This technological convergence can be supported by converging markets and user habits - yet also be questioned and suspended in terms of a fragmentation of economic chances and media preferences (cf. Schorr 2003).
Denationalization, media entertainment and e-pleasure
Seen from outside, Europe appears as relatively homogeneous. Yet, the major mass media still refer mainly to national events, actors and developments, even when in trans-national media formats. Illegal immigration from the neighbouring African and Asian countries, terrorism within Europe and from other parts of the world, unemployment, global competition and shifting military, economic and cultural identification alliances are often the topics of nationally framed information, education and entertainment in the media; in these terms, they also constitute issues of expert and decision-maker circles. Denationalization grows, partially veiled by media entertainment and e-pleasure. Beyond (or behind) the pleasure principle, economic, military, political powers prepare decisions, re-confirm alliances, re-shape the agenda and frameworks for dealing with the major issues.
Convergence under pressure leads to fragmentation. Therefore, the role of the newest information and communication technologies (ICT) and formats in a changing Europe must be analysed not only in terms of optimistic market projections but also in terms of realistic trends toward complementary fragmentations.
From 2000 to 2004 eighteen senior and three junior scholars from twelve countries in Europe formed Team 3 of the ESF s programme Changing Media - Changing Europe: Convergence and Fragmentation: Media Technology and the Information Society . Some of the foci of our discussions are summarized below.
Shifting balances and conflicts
The exclusion of majorities of the populations of most European countries from technologically advanced and expensive consumer devices means that we should take into account the shifting balances and conflicts of inclusion and exclusion. Continuity and discontinuity in the development of media technology and the Information Society requires us to leave behind a number of traditional notions, methods and data used for national developments and international comparisons.
The contradictory