A European Television History

A European Television History is a much–needed text that brings together television historians and media scholars to chart the development of television in Europe since its inception. Taking an insistently comparative approach to the topic and organizing the volume around a set of common questions, themes, and methodological reflections, the volume interrogates the history of the medium in divergent political, economic, cultural and ideological national contexts.

Organised around critical debates that illuminate the many ways television has grown up in Europe, A European Television History is an authoritative account of the development of television in the various countries of Europe. The volume will be welcome among students of media culture and history, as well as academic specialists seeking a coherent methodology and source text for their research.

List of Contributors.

Acknowledgements.

1. Introduction: Comparative European Perspectives on Television History: Jonathan Bignell (University of Reading) and Andreas Fickers (University of Maastricht).

2. Early TV: Imagining and Realising Television: Knut Hickethier (University of Hamburg).

3. Institutionalising European Television: The Shaping of European Television Institutions and Infrastructures: Christina Adamou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), with Isabelle Gaillard (University of Grenoble) and Dana Mustata (University of Utrecht).

4. Searching for an Identity for Television: Programmes, Genres, Formats: Jérôme Bourdon (University of Tel Aviv), with Juan Carlos Ibáñez (University Carlos III, Madrid), Catherine Johnson ( Royal Holloway, University of London) and Eggo Müller (University of Utrecht).

5. TV Nations or Global Medium? European Television Between National Institution and Window on the World: Sonja de Leeuw (University of Utrecht), with Alexander Dhoest (University of Antwerp), Juan Francisco Gutiérrez Lozano (University of Málaga), François Heinderyckx (Free University of Brussels), Anu Koivunen (University of Helsinki)and Jamie Medhurst (University of Wales Aberystwyth).

6. American Television: Point of Reference or European Nightmare?: Ib Bondebjerg (University of Copenhagen), with Tomasz Goban–Klas (University of Krakow), Michele Hilmes (University of Wisconsin–Madison), Dana Mustata (University of Utrecht), Helle Strandgaard–Jensen (Roskilde University Centre, Demnark), Isabelle Veyrat–Masson (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Paris) and Susanne Vollberg (University of Leipzig).

7. European Television Events and Euro–visions: Tensions between the Ordinary and the Extraordinary: Rob Turnock (Royal Holloway, University of London), with Alexander Hecht (Österreichischer Rundfunk), Dana Mustata (University of Utrecht), Mari Pajala (University of Turku) and Alison Preston (Ofcom).

8. European Television Audiences: Localising the Viewers: Mats Björkin (University of Gothenburg), with Juan Francisco Gutiérrez Lozano (University of Málaga).

9. Conclusion: Reflections on Doing European Television History: Andreas Fickers (University of Maastricht) and Jonathan Bignell (University of Reading).

10. European Television Archives and the Search for Audiovisual Sources: Andy O Dwyer (BBC Future Media & Technology, London).

Index.

Jonathan Bignell is Professor of Television and Film at the University of Reading (UK).

Andreas Fickers is Assistant Professor for Television History at the University of Utrecht (NL).

"The approaches of this book...should become part of the preparation of anyone teaching about television." ( Communication Research Trends, 2009)

"With this collection, Bignell and Fickers bring together an outstanding team of scholars to draw together the best of existing and new scholarship in the field. This collection should inform all future studies of television, media history and, given the centrality of media to the formation of contemporary Europe, the study of European history as a whole." Sean Cubitt, Director of the Program in media and Communications, University of Melbourne