Journal articles on the topic 'Television broadcasting – European Union countries'

The impact of public service media (PSM) on media competition has become a topic of debate in many European countries. Some argue that PSM could starve commercial media, or discourage them from entering markets in the first place because they shrink commercial audiences, lowering both advertising income for free commercial television and willingness to pay for commercial products. Despite its prevalence as a policy argument, there has been limited research about the crowding out concept – and almost no research that is independent, comparative, and considers broadcasting as well as online markets. This article addresses these shortcomings by examining whether there is any evidence to support the crowding out argument by analysing national broadcast and online markets in all 28 European Union countries. More specifically, we focus on data on market resources, audience performance and payment for digital news. The analysis reveals little to no support for the crowding out argument for broadcasting and related online markets.

In the newly shaped post‑WWI Europe the CEE region was an integral part of the pan‑European media system. The iron curtain that split Europe into two parts in the bipolar period, inevitably led to the emergence of two separate media systems, i.e. the Western European one and the one driven by the USSR (and existing predominantly in Eastern‑European states). These systems were institutionalized by the establishment of separate broadcasting alliances and corresponding TV programme exchange networks. At the same time, in the context of the Cold War, the CEE region was a key target of Western broadcasting with the aim to counter Soviet propaganda and political influence. This factor reinforced by the willingness of the CEE countries to preserve their European identity caused the socialist media system (as well as other Soviet integration projects) to remain artificial and to be rejected in the region. It was clearly confirmed at the beginning of the post‑bipolar period, when, after the collapse of the socialist camp and the USSR, the Soviet‑driven International Radio and Television Organization ceased to exist, and the CEE countries integrated into the European Broadcasting Union, unleashing their desire to “return to Europe”. At the same time, in the context of a policy aimed at preserving control over the post‑Soviet space, Russia makes efforts which could be regarded as an attempt to restore (preserve) the common media space in the post‑Soviet territories. In the paper the CEE region is regarded in the broadest way, including all states which were in socialist bloc, and appropriate former European Soviet republics.

This article is an attempt to show the beginning of Eduard Borisovich Abdullin’s creative path in the pedagogy of music education, in particular, his experience in teaching as an artistic director and conductor of the choir studio “Melodia” of the Palace of Pioneers in the city of Podolsk, Moscow Region. As a graduate student of the Lenin Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, the young teacher achieved tremendous creative success: the choir studio under his direction performed in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Column Hall of the House of Unions, the P. I. Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses; toured in the cities of the USSR and European countries. On the first television channel, two hour-long television programs were shown. The studio of the State House of Radio Broadcasting and Sound Recording has released educational records. For almost half a century, the “Melodiya” studio continued to meet with its leader, and all members of the choir strove to attend them in order to meet their Teacher again. Special attention is paid to the significance of the fundamental works by Eduard Borisovich Abdullin, which became the basis for the pedagogical interpretation by the author in his research activities of the conceptual provisions of the methodology of pedagogy of music education. The sequential expansion of the problem field of the conducted musical pedagogical research is described: from the theoretical substantiation of the model for the development of the Central Russian folk song tradition by children to the formation of a new direction of research searches associated with the use of various vocal techniques at the junction of different genres.

About legal aspects of formation and realization of state policy in the field of television and broadcast, definition of measures on adaptation of legislation in this sphere to the legislation of European Union.

Public service broadcasting is still widely supported in the European Union, despite technological developments which are now offering a challenge to many of the traditional justifications offered for the support of the concept. This article aims to demonstrate that public service broadcasting, along with associated measures designed to support high standards of quality in other broadcasting services, are still very important in the modern context due to the media's pivotal role in society. An analysis of the impact of 'European public law' which, in this context, is primarily restricted to the law on the freedom to provide services and the associated effects of the 'Television Without Frontiers' Directive and the law relating to state aids, aims to highlight the impact which European Public Law has had on media regulation. Some of the more recent developments, such as the European Court of Justice's decision in Ferring and Altmark, along with the Commission's corresponding change in attitude to state funding of public service broadcasting, are welcomed. The Court's more recent decisions taken under the freedom to provide services are questioned more closely, as it appears that these measures can be said to have had a more significant impact upon the traditions of media regulation within Member State constitutions.

Observers of the media policies of the European Union contend that the transmission state principle of the Television Without Frontiers Directive, by ruling out the restriction of transfrontier broadcasts, which are in compliance with the laws of the originating state, has signified the end of the broadcasting sovereignty of the Member States. The transmission state principle is central to the objective of the Television Without Frontiers Directive to create an internal market in broadcasting services. Laid down initially in Article 2(2) of Directive 89/552/EEC, it has been transferred to Article 2a(1) following the adoption of the revised Directive 97/36/EC. The meaning of the principle has remained the same: Member States are obliged to ensure the unhindered reception of broadcasts lawfully transmitted in their state of origin. They only have a limited possibility to derogate provisionally from the transmission state principle, when foreign television broadcasts manifestly, seriously and gravely breach provisions concerning the protection of minors or public order.

Observers of the media policies of the European Union contend that the transmission state principle of the Television Without Frontiers Directive, by ruling out the restriction of transfrontier broadcasts, which are in compliance with the laws of the originating state, has signified the end of the broadcasting sovereignty of the Member States. The transmission state principle is central to the objective of the Television Without Frontiers Directive to create an internal market in broadcasting services. Laid down initially in Article 2(2) of Directive 89/552/EEC, it has been transferred to Article 2a(1) following the adoption of the revised Directive 97/36/EC. The meaning of the principle has remained the same: Member States are obliged to ensure the unhindered reception of broadcasts lawfully transmitted in their state of origin. They only have a limited possibility to derogate provisionally from the transmission state principle, when foreign television broadcasts manifestly, seriously and gravely breach provisions concerning the protection of minors or public order.

Public television is present in every European country, and it position on the market has been changing during the process of transition from monopoly to oligopoly and further towards monopolistic competition market. In most transition countries of the European Union, this process started in early 1990s and today public television represents only one player on the market. This paper analyzes the position of public television in 8 countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia for the period from 1995 till 2019. The goal of this research is to analyze the changes in the market share of public television, as well as to compare public television position in these 8 countries. This will be done by applying descriptive statistic methods on the data about audience. The audience represents the market share, and it is analyzed on the level of each public TV channel. Countries are further divided into three groups, those with strong, middle and weak position of public television. Additionally, concentration analysis based on HHI will show how similar or different these markets are. The results show that the market power of public television has fallen in the analyzed period. Despite of that, in the majority of the 8 analyzed countries, public television still plays an important role on the market.

The European Union (EU)’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive 2010/13/EU (AVMS Directive) requires broadcasters to seek to ensure that a majority of transmission time is dedicated to ‘European works’. The definition of eligible works for this cultural quota includes states party to the European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT), of which twenty EU Member States and the UK are among the members. EU broadcasters can hence satisfy the quota with UK works. It appears, however, that post-Brexit the European Commission contemplates an attempt to exclude UK works from the definition, so as to enlarge the share of the market available to EU Member State producers. This article examines that ambition against the obligations of the EU and its Member States under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the ECTT, concluding that several obstacles stand in the way of achieving that policy goal. AVMS, ‘Television without Frontiers’, European works, broadcasting quota, Brexit, GATS

This study investigates to what extent audiovisual infotainment features can be found in the narrative structure of television news in three European countries. Content analysis included a sample of 639 news reports aired in the first 3 weeks of September 2013, in six prime-time TV news broadcasts of Ireland, Spain, and the Netherlands. It was found that Spain and Ireland included more technical features of infotainment in television news compared to the Netherlands. Also, the use of infotainment techniques is more often present in commercial, than in public broadcasting. Finally, the findings indicate no clear pattern of the use of infotainment techniques across news topics as coded in this study.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Western governments turned to radio as the most effective means of countering the Soviet information monopoly. U.S. and West European radio stations attempted to provide listeners with the kind of programs they might expect from their own radio stations if the latter were free of censorship. For most of these listeners in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the broadcasts were their only contact with the outside world. The importance of the foreign radio programs was confirmed not only by audience estimates, but also by the considerable efforts the Communist regimes made to jam the transmissions. Given the importance of foreign broadcasting for the political life of the Soviet bloc, it is remarkable that these broadcasts have received scant scholarly attention in the Western countries that sponsored them. The three books reviewed here help to fill that gap.

Abstract This article reports a comparative analysis of the media’s political agenda setting capacity in 27 European media systems, aimed at testing the hypothesis that the magnitude of this phenomenon is moderated by factors such as development of the press markets, journalist professionalization, strength of public television or political pluralism. The empirical analysis relies on data collected by the expert survey European Media Systems Survey, the World Association of Newspapers, the European Audiovisual Observatory, and the research project Providing an Infrastructure for Research on Electoral Democracy in the European Union (PIREDEU). Results show that political agenda setting is perceived as more common in press markets in which newspapers work as means of horizontal communication (and are, as subsystem, politically imbalanced), but that journalist professionalization and strength of public broadcasting systems foster political agenda setting effects.

Digital switchover of (DSO) of terrestrial broadcasting constitutes one of the most critical moments of policy change in Europe because it offered a unique opportunity of reconceptualising public media space for the next era of communication. The promise of a plural and public service oriented broadcast policy legitimized efforts of citizens investing in digitization, provided public acceptance and approval to the changes set to terminate analogue television. This article explores the policy framing of the switchover process in the European Union. It finds that DSO was constructed around overly technical and economic frames in the policy, a strategy, which allowed building an argument of neutrality of technology and hence of the steps policy-makers were making. This construction did not address the exclusion and side-lining of the social and political consequences of free-to-air reduction. The article argues that this practice provided a low-conflict policy process led by the European Commission between 2005 and 2015 and showcased a paradox on European spectrum policy. The article further argues that the governance of digitalization of Europe’s screens presents a case of highly complex low-salience regulatory policy, which means muted participation of citizens and limited public debate. Ultimately, this strategy undermines democratic practice and meaningful transparency in European policy-making as it eliminates deliberations on what constitutes public interest in the 21st media context. The analyses of communication DSO policy as a matter of polity situate well with European media governance scholarship.

The right to intellectual property, which regulates the legal relations of creators and titulars, their personal and property rights in relation to their works, the relations of titulars and users and the relations of titulars and those who abuse their rights, has open perspectives for theoretical elaboration, with the need for daily improvement of national and international protection regulations, as well as the mechanisms for their practical implementation. The enormous impact of copyright and related rights, as a relatively new branch of law, as well as the rapid technological development leading to new techniques, such as broadcasting, which is the transmission of audio and video content to the public via radio, television, or other , often digital media, gave rise to the legal recognition of the rights not only of the authors and performers whose works are broadcast, but also the rights of the broadcasting organizations themselves (radio and television organizations) in relation to the use of their shows. Within this paper, we will strive to apply broadcasting, as part of the related rights of copyright, the importance and impact of the rights of radio and television organizations, their subject of protection, as well as legal protection, and also regulation of the rights of radio and television organizations under international law and the European Union.Furthermore, the set level of protection of the rights of broadcasters at the international level is taken into account. All this is covered in a broad framework of legislation, ie TRIPS Agreement, Rome Convention and Brussels Satellite Convention. Additionally, the level of protection of broadcasters' rights is described in European context. These are guidelines set in the domain of the Council of Europe, European Union and European Directives. The main goal of the paper is to draw essential conclusions and recommendations that will be the basis for being efficient through the application of qualitative analysis, more precisely, expressed through the application of content analysis method, comparison method and synthesis method, generalization and specification. Additionally, more it will produce more effective Macedonian legislation in the domain of the expressed issues, through a strategic approach of analysis and implementation. In the context of the above, the main conclusion and recommendations arising from the paper refer to the fact that the exclusive rights are not absolute but limited by limitations and exceptions to copyright law, including fair use. A major limitation on copyright is that copyright protects only the original expression of ideas, and not the underlying ideas themselves. It is also important to emphasize that every society needs to find its own explicit way of setting the legal framework in this issue, primarily as a result of existing opportunities and capacities, in terms of resources and technological benefits, which significantly affect of the process of effective implementation.

This article aims to explore the ways in which Estonian broadcasting (with a focus on television) tackled the challenges of transforming from a monopolistic party propaganda machine into a modern dual media system in which public service broadcasting and newly created private enterprises coexist; and how this process evolved in a small post-communist country. This article argues that the Estonian government’s ‘idealisation’ of market forces supported by the European Union media policy, which is driven by common market ideology, did not take into account the market’s limitations and media companies’ actual capability to provide a large range of media services. The research methodology is based on an analysis of EU media policy documents, Estonian media legislation, the protocols of the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Estonia, protocols of the broadcasters’ licensing committee at the Ministry of Culture and the broadcasters’ annual reports from the period 1992 - 2015. The article analyses the key trends in Estonian media development and policymaking during the last 25 years.

Modern global filmmaking is fed by more than 120 public support mechanisms. Depending on the degree of government involvement in film industry market regulation, the national models in this area may vary. When it comes to European feature films, the producers ride on five main sources: direct government funding, broadcasting investment, producer investment, pre-sales, and tax incentives. The most important here are the first two, which focus 26% and 21% of support, respectively. Most European countries today provide their film industries by investing in the production process directly—through the pre-acquisition and/or co-production of films and television programs, and indirectly, by contributing to their national film funds. Such forms of investment are constantly evolving, since they have already proven themselves to be very effective. Other market players—exhibitors, distributors of audiovisual content and creators of film content on physical media—support national and European film production through compulsory contributions to cinema funds. The emergence and popularity of video-on-demand platforms has boosted broadcasters’ financial commitments. The article also provides information on the technical details of this multi-step process: the author classifies the existing types of broadcasters’ obligations, and analyzes the mechanisms of financial support for film production by television channels.

The Impact of New Technologies on International Communication: The Case of Public DiplomacyBeata OciepkaThe events in North Africa in the spring of 2011 again attracted the attention of the world public opinion to social media because of their use by opposition for initiatinga social change. The paper raises the question whether social media might play any role in international communication. To answer the question, the case of public diplomacy as a form of political international communication of Central and Eastern European newcomers to the European Union is analyzed. Social media are seen as tools supporting the old networks built thanks to classical tools of diplomacy and contributing to the development of new digital networks. However, the analysis of using of social media by ministries and ministers of foreign affairs as hubs or knots of networks in public diplomacy does not convince as to their any contribution to the development of the relational model of public diplomacy in the region. More optimism might be derived from the online presence of the Belsat television, a channel broadcasting in Belarusian from Poland to Belarus in order to achieve social changes though international broadcasting and social media.Key words: social media, public diplomacy, international communication, new media

From the perspective of a developing country, the selection of correct digital technology for state-owned television might appear as a decisive testimony of national interest. In selecting appropriate technology, factors such as user acceptance, commercialization prospects, network externalities or cost-effectiveness have significant influence. However, the causal element(s) that have the greatest impacts in the developing countries have not been discussed enough. This article thus aims to examine the technology selection process through the ongoing digital television switchover in the Bangladesh experience. In line with recent global escalation of changing broadcasting technology from analogue to digital, the International Telecommunication Union apprized the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) to complete the digital TV switchover by 2015. In 2021, the GOB had not yet completed it. This article primarily aims to discover why it has not been possible to complete the switchover in Bangladesh to date. With a few exceptions, little work has been done on how developing countries decide to choose a technology over another and how they exclude other latent technology for media industry. During the technology selection process, how the various options and parameters work and how they incorporate with the existing media policies are in need of examination. Although there may be some common parameters while selecting technology universally, within the developing countries, aspects of country-specific contexts might be different. Rather than verifying the technology chosen, this article aims to explain that how the selection process occurs within the television sector in the developing countries.

Formation of information society and increasing of the role of information for the different aspects of a social life, decline of an attitudinal influence of religious organizations and religious leaders in some European countries and increasing of the role of religion in other countries are important factors to predict an increasing of conflicts between states and different types of information conductors. So researching of a practice of the European Court of human rights concerning application of an Article 10 of European convention on human rights in a sphere of creative industries is an actual and important task. An author elaborates on Court’s assessing of licensing in a sphere of television and radio broadcasting and some aspects of activity of TV-companies, restrictions in an advertisement sphere. Court finds that countries have a right to state a model of broadcasting on their territories through system of the licensing in this sphere. The licensing can depend on such conditions as nature and objectives of a proposed station, its potential audience at national, regional or local level, the rights and needs of a specific audience and the obligations deriving from international legal instruments. The licensing process must provide sufficient guarantees against arbitrariness, including the proper reasoning by the licensing authority of its decisions denying a broadcasting license. The law must indicate with sufficient clarity the scope of any discretion and the manner of its exercise. EUCHR underlines a special social responsibility of TV-monopolists in broadcasting of an advertisement concerning important social discussion. An approach of EUCHR in assessing of interference with the right to freedom of expression on practice of the creative sector of the economy concerning a balance between this freedom and social interest in ensuring of morality and rights of believers is investigated separately. The author has analyzed most important cases of this type including such as “Sekmadienis Ltd. v. Lithuania” (2018), “Gachechiladze v. Georgia” (2021). The author concluded that a main argument for Court’s decision was a form of a bringing of the information. Using not gross forms of expression of views in commercial practice concerning religious symbols and leaders, addressing them in some humorous, not satirical manner is a permissible form of expression of views.

Football’s (soccer’s) EURO 2016 in France marked a high point for sport journalism and broadcasting. Due to the implementation of a uniform multilateral image feed by the European Football Association (UEFA), differences in the verbal live commentary became significant. This study investigated commentary of the live television broadcasts of 4 matches in a specific country. Using social identity and self-categorization, a mixed-methods analysis was employed to quantitatively analyze the commentary and qualitatively assess content for notions of nationalism, patriotism, or globalization. Instead of notions of ideological nationalism, coverage emphasized sporting action and Europeanization of the event. Excluding forms of “banal nationalism” like introducing the teams and playing national anthems, live commentary presented fair or positive patriotism, together with remarks of transnational friendship and comradeship of the players. Based on the increasing frequency of sport organizations using similar image feeds in the future, a decreasing relevance for live commentary by national broadcasters is discussed.

This chapter examines the case of Eurocops, a crime TV show produced by the European Coproduction Association – composed by one private and six public service broadcasting (PSB) channels of seven European countries – from 1988 to 1994 (71 episodes). Although it is one of the first European co-productions of its kind, Eurocops was a critical and commercial fiasco: what were its faults? Following Ib Bondebjerg’s methodology, this article aims at exploring the failure of this ‘Europudding’. The first section places Eurocops in the media landscape of the late 1980s and explains why this series can be considered as a ‘Europudding’ trying to enforce Europe’s cultural sovereignty against the North American hegemony. The second section analyses how the decentralized PSB production of Eurocops implied the use of an inconsistent narrative structure making the single episodes appear as part of a loose ‘collection’ of crime fiction. This partly explains the lukewarm critical reception of this television programme. The third section examines the cultural meaning of the series and is based on the analysis of the 48 episodes we had access to (through the INA French archives). The lack of transnational ‘encounters’ or dialogues – compared to other more recent cop shows such as The Team, The Killing and The Bridge – reveals the absence of a strong European identity at the time of production.

The problem of ecology is one of the most common problems of the twenty-first century. No country is immune: no country has better military equipment, no country with low inflation, no country with “perfect” legislation. The purpose of the article was to clarify legislative issues: European Union legislation was outdated, general and lacking in specificity. To address these problems, this article uses different approaches to the definition of environmental security, which makes it necessary to change the concept and the actions within which the definition is adopted. The article goes on to discuss the position of realists who argue that environmental security cannot be set because of lack of accountability “the importance” of the issue of “high” issues. Thus, the paper refers to the emergence of environmental security and its long path. This article contains the following changes and provisions: Brundtland Committee (1987), Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Habitats in Europe (1979), International Tropical Timber Agreement (1983) as well as the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (1979), the Maastricht Treaty (1992), the Hazardous Substances Directives, the impact of EU measures on the environment and the Animal Protection Directive. In addition, the article exposes Programs designed to ensure and regulate environmental safety. The report of the European Environment Agency was also reviewed and a comparative analysis of the data contained in the report and the British Broadcasting Corporation estimates was made. The authors draw attention to several directives, calling them “triumvirate”, which provide the basis for countries to regulate some environmental legislation. Almost in the end of the paper the authors pay attention to the phenomenon of environmental ethics, which is a consequence of imperfect legislation. In its conclusion, the article states that the problems that arise from the lack of accountability of legal acts of a real environmental situation occur in the member states, taking into account the special case of the European Union.

AbstractThis article discusses the role of territorial licences for feature films against the background of judicial and market developments in the EU. Currently, territorial licences are deemed a cornerstone of the exploitation and financing of films in Europe. However, current models of film financing are under increasing pressure both from market developments such as the turbulent growth of global online video platforms, and from developments in EU law aimed at removing national territorial barriers to the Single Market. Examples are the rule of Union-wide exhaustion of the distribution right, the EU Portability Regulation and the country of origin rules for satellite broadcasting and online simulcasting. EU competition law sets additional limits to grants of territorial exclusivity, and prohibits clauses in broadcasting and pay television licences that prevent or restrict “passive” sales to consumers/viewers in non-licensed territories. The freedom of right holders to preserve territorial exclusivity by way of contract is likely to become increasingly vulnerable to EU competition law, as underlying territorial rights no longer support territorial grants. For the film sector where territorial exclusivity remains indispensable, the European Commission could create specific competition law rules in the form of “block exemptions”. Language exclusivity – i.e. exclusive grants of rights for distinct language versions of a film – could provide a practical and legally more robust alternative to territorial licensing.

Relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean have been rather unstable. Despite several significant successes achieved in the framework of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean Summits (EU–LAC), in fact, in the late 1990s they entered a period of stagnation. The vision of the key tasks of multilateral cooperation between the European Union and LAC was different. For the EU interaction with Latin America was important, both from the point of view of greater consolidation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and from the point of view of its greater involvement in the world agenda already in the positions of a prominent actor, broadcasting its authority outside the traditional sphere of influence. For LAC, relations with Europe were considered as a mechanism capable of activating, first, intra-regional processes. This article discusses the development of cooperation between the European Union and Latin America, which is traditionally special for both regions, at the present stage. Despite the different vision of the main goals and objectives of interregional relations, the partnership between the EU and LAC are built around three main institutions of cooperation: political dialogue, assistance and trade. These three thematic vectors were identified at the I EU-LAC Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1999, as the basis for bilateral cooperation. The author examines in detail all three institutions of multilateral interaction, including their achievements and obstacles. The mechanisms of cooperation launched under the pressure of new global challenges are identified. A separate section of the article is devoted to the analysis of the results of public opinion polls, which sheds light on the attitude of Latin America towards the European Union and its regional policy. The author approaches the analysis of the EU-LAC cooperation model comprehensively and bilaterally: from the standpoint of common tasks in the international arena of both the EU and Latin American countries, considered in close connection with the ongoing global and regional latest processes.

In recent years, the European and Macedonian television etherare experiencing major changes. The process of digitalization of television has been completed in most European countries, while in a smaller number it is still ongoing. Digitalization of television means production, transmission and reception of television programs in digital form through the use of digital methods for modulation and signal processing. The process of digitalization of televisions in the Republic of North Macedonia was carried out during 2013, although the first scenario for digitalization was to be completed by the end of 2012. By decision of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, analog signals were switched off on 31 May 2013, and The very next day, on June 1, 2013, the digital broadcasting started. From a legal point of view, this process passed without enough public debate, media managers were brought before a final act, and at the last minute they were forced to sign contracts and documents for the transition from analog to digital signal. This was especially negatively reflected on the work of the regional televisions whose programs, under very unfavorable financial conditions, are distributed by a digital public communication network operator. The Association for Private Media of the Republic of North Macedonia, at the time of the adoption of the regulations, categorically states that the current conditions for digitalization are too much for the televisions, above all economically unjustified and completely unacceptable in the current situation. Additionally, the frequency spectrum management in the Republic of North Macedonia is under the competence of a special regulator - the Agency for Electronic Communications, which is also an independent regulatory body, while the decisions for issuing licenses in the broadcasting area are made by the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (previously Broadcasting Tip). The main claim of this research is that a strategically designed regulatory policy, if it strives to achieve media and cultural pluralism, in the implementation of the digitalization process, must take into account the conditions for economic sustainability and development of regional television. The main goal of this research is an analysis of the process of digitalization of terrestrial televisions, which was conducted during 2013 by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia and the regulatory bodies of the broadcasting activity. A qualitative research strategy will be applied in the research. The following methods for data collection or analysis will be used: qualitative analysis of documents; analysis of secondary data; in-depth interviews with owners or managers of regional televisions and in-depth interviews with experts in the field of media policy and in the field of management and broadcasting; qualitative analysis of interview transcripts. Regional televisions are a very important factor in informing the citizens in the regions where they are broadcast. The survival of regional televisions should be a concern, above all for the central government, but also for the local one. Thereby, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the regional televisions. The purpose of this paper was to present the real situation, as well as the important role of regional televisions in the Republic of North Macedonia, but also to point out recommendations for their continuous sustainability. In addition to the above conclusions and recommendations, it is necessary to keep in mind that this is a particularly sensitive topic that is presented in this paper in the simplest possible way. However, due to its complexity and importance, the need to deepen research in this area is pointed out in order to contribute to the development of a more effective strategy, plan and guidelines for creating positive conditions for sustainability and development of regional televisions.

This article examines GDR television from a media-historical perspective with special focus on the inter- and transnational communication between Eastern and Western Europe in the Cold War until the dissolution of the separate spheres of power in 1990. It focuses on the development and function of the “Organisation Internationale de diffusion et de Télévision Radio” (OIRT), which was founded in 1946, and their network “Intervision”, founded in 1960, both centred in Prague. The OIRT, as an umbrella organization, coordinated cooperation between the TV-stations in the socialist community and represented their interests to the “European Broadcasting Union” (UER/EBU) and the “Eurovision” system. While “Intervision” handled the direct program traffic between the stations, exchange of movies and occasionally TV series was an autonomous field. A central conclusion is that the program transfer had a hand in a partial rapprochement and dialogue between East and West. In addition, these permanent relations triggered an early synchronization process with a tendency to cross-culture productions – even if the partial opening in Eastern Europe before 1990 brought only limited pluralism and could not contribute to genuine participation.

For many years, the subject of aggressive marketing campaigns conducted by pharmaceutical companies has been raised in Poland. Drug ads are everywhere, on television, the radio, magazines and on the Internet. Therefore, it is extremely important is to ensure both their legal and ethical dimension. This article will present the differences between direct-to-consumer advertising of medicines in Poland and in the US. The dissimilarities result mainly from differences in legislation. In Poland, the law is much stricter than in the US. For example, in the United States companies are allowed to advertise prescription drugs directly to patients. In the whole of the European Union, and thus in Poland, it is strictly prohibited. The article will also present other regulations existing in Poland and in the United States and it will compare them. It will offer examples of violations of the law and ethics in the advertising of medicine in both countries. Lastly, it will briefly outline the negative consequences of unacceptable pharmaceutical marketing.

The article is devoted to practical aspects of implementation of communication strategies by the state agencies of foreign countries. The emphasized that current globalization processes in the information area, which take place in the international arena, actualize the introduction of effective communications, which play an important role in the internal and external interaction of state agencies with the public. In the article was emphasized that in order to systematically and clearly cover the activities of state agencies, as well as the objective perception and understanding of the population of the processes implemented in the field of public policy, informing the public about planned government initiatives, communication strategies are actively implemented. Also noted that in the countries of the European Union (hereinafter – the EU) communications are considered by the national institutions as a tool for foreign and security policy, international cooperation in the format of strategic partnership with a leading international target audience and regional cooperation with European countries. The authors determined the main tasks of realization of external and internal communications of state institutions. In particular, the ways of realization of communications by the state agencies in Norway, Great Britain and Estonia. The preference of modern advanced information communications in ensuring the interaction of state agencies and the public are outlined. As today society exists in the world of global communication, which includes not only traditional media, periodicals or television, but also social networks, information and communication interaction is becoming more important. Most foreign countries use popular social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and others. It is concluded that the establishment of comprehensive, clear and strategic communication of state authorities of Ukraine with the international and national community, taking into account foreign experience and basic principles of government communication, is important for building a democratic state.

There are different marketing activities generating money for sport subjects depending on their properties which are offered for commercial exploitation. Marketing consists of different tools and ways how to generate money for sport such as selling of broadcasting (TV) and media rights, sponsorship, merchandising, licensing, ticketing, charities, donations, patronages. From the legal point of view, it is interesting to explore how different marketing tools are regulated. Certain parts of marketing matters are covered by legal rules. In 2011 Commission on Marketing and Advertising of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) issued the latest version of the ICC International Advertising and Marketing Communication Code. The document applies to different forms of sponsorship relating to corporate image, brands, products, activities or events of any kind. It includes sponsorship by both commercial and non-commercial organizations. The basic connection represents association between sports property and sponsor brand as a tool how to transfer image of the sport to the sponsor. The nature of the Code implies good governance in the field of sponsorship. Special attention deserves the principle of respecting the sponsorship property. The Code represents a useful opportunity for companies, business, associations, courts of law, public authorities, self regulatory bodies on national and international level and other institutions which are supposed to solve disputes in sponsorship cases. European Union law together with national legislation of EU members have set up rules for advertising sector of TV broadcast. Television without Frontiers Broadcasting Directive consists with the detailed time and other limitations for different situations. As EU directive does not regulate visual coverage of sponsor logos and other insignia visible during sport competition on TV that means that sponsors and other subjects do not need to respect rules of the directive. In the absence of formal legislation on national and international level the ICC Code represent a very useful tool to handle sponsorship agreements and possible disputes which could arise from them. The Code is designed primarily as an instrument for self-discipline. On the other hand it is also intended for use as an interpretative aid for the parties in the clarification of uncertainties arising under the sponsorship, as well as a reference for courts or arbitrators in sponsorship disputes.

ABSTRACT The experience of different countries concerning the formation of preconditions for the development of the information society has been considered. The consequences of “totalitarian” model during the transition to open democratic civil society and the role of education and educators in this process have been defined on the example of Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The introduction of media education on the example of the U.S. and Canada as development of society and civilized economy has been substantiated. Didactic information space (DIS) - a unique educational technology, which was elaborated by scientists in the Mykolaiv College of Press and Television - has been characterized. It has proven to be the most efficient technology in the former Soviet Union that considers civic, social, educational direction, taking into account the information society. It has been determined that for further research it will be interesting to study interrelation between the need to obtain simultaneously a huge amount of experience - understanding European values, the next stage of human development (transition from industrial to information), the acquisition of democratic thinking, understanding of civil society - and the public acquisition of media literacy skills through the widespread introduction of media education. There exists the need of simultaneous acquisition of knowledge and skills that makes the process complicated. In addition, none of the considered aspects are taught in any school discipline and unfortunately they are submitted only in several universities of Ukraine. But there is a positive experimental experience of Mykolaiv College of Press and Television through the interrelation of classroom and extracurricular activities.

Abstract Background Advertising, promotion and sponsorship of electronic cigarettes (ECAPS) have increased in recent years. Since May 2016, the Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU (TPD2) prohibits ECAPS in various advertising channels, including media that have cross-border effects. The objective of this study was to investigate changes in exposure to ECAPS in a cohort of smokers from six European Union member states after implementation of TPD2. Methods Self-reported exposure to ECAPS overall and in various media and localities was examined over two International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation survey waves (2016 and 2018) in a cohort of 6011 adult smokers from Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Spain (EUREST-PLUS Project) using longitudinal generalized estimating equations models. Results Self-reported ECAPS exposure at both timepoints varied between countries and across examined advertising channels. Overall, there was a significant increase in ECAPS exposure [adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.25, 95% CI: 1.09–1.44]. Between waves, no consistent patterns of change in ECAPS exposure across countries and different media were observed. Generally, ECAPS exposure tended to decline in some channels regulated by TPD2, particularly on television and radio, while exposure tended to increase in some unregulated channels, such as at points of sale. Conclusions The findings suggest that the TPD2 was generally effective in reducing ECAPS in regulated channels. Nonetheless, further research is warranted to evaluate its role in reducing ECAPS exposure, possibly by triangulation with additional sources of data.

The life and activity of the publicist, journalist and researcher Bohdan Osadchuk is a meaningful example of activities for the inter-civilisation dialogue. He was born in Galicia, which belonged to the Second Polish Republic, and he always treated Polish and Ukrainian cultures as his own. Osadchuk’s efforts to strengthen Polish-Ukrainian relations and understanding, as well as his cooperation with Jerzy Giedroyc, editor-in-chief of the Paris-based journal Kultura [Culture], which was unique in terms of content and influence, were of particular importance. The author of this article has collected and analysed little-known and so far undiscovered facts and previously unavailable archival documents. Bohdan Osadchuk grew up in a multicultural environment. Professing liberal values, he condemned all chauvinism. He managed to combine the identity of a Ukrainian emigrant with that of a European democrat. For seventy years, he lived in Berlin (1941–2011), where he graduated from the university and became recognised as a journalist Alexander Korab. He was known under this pseudonym to readers of German newspapers and the oldest Swiss daily newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung for decades. For over half a century, he wrote for this authoritative newspaper about the events in the Soviet Union, Poland, Ukraine and the countries of the socialist bloc. Moreover, when actively cooperating with German radio and television, he introduced Polish and Ukrainian issues to the media discourse. The communist special services of the People’s Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union hunted Bohdan Osadchuk, watched him and tried to recruit him. But he was playing his own game and was not fooled. This article also describes Osadchuk’s scientific achievements that he gained as a professor at the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin) and the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, as well as the author of fundamental publications. Moreover, the circumstances of the last years of Osadchuk’s life, which ended in Poland, are presented for the first time.

Abstract The changes in the audiovisual media services market that have taken place in recent years have resulted in quite intensive work in the European Union (starting in 2015) on the revision of certain directives concerning this economic area. One of the pieces of EU law that was decided to be updated was the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. This is because it was pointed out that since the last amendment of this directive, there had been a significant and rapid development of the audiovisual media services market due to the progressive convergence of television and internet services. The advancement of technology has allowed the emergence of new types of services and new ways of using them. In addition, it has been stressed that viewing habits have changed considerably, especially among younger viewers. New types of messaging, such as short forms of video and user-generated content, have grown in importance, and new entrants, including video-on-demand providers and video-sharing platform providers, have already established their position. This media convergence has called for an updated legal framework in the EU to take account of market developments and to strike a balance in access to content in online services, as well as to ensure consumer protection and competitiveness. Directive 2018/1808 was to be implemented by the EU Member States by 19 September 2020 but Poland did not meet this deadline; it was not until 11 August 2021 that the relevant amendments to the Broadcasting Act and the Cinematography Act were enacted. Most of its provisions came into force on 1 November 2021, while others entered into force on 1 January 2022. Considering the way in which most of the provisions of Directive 2018/1808 have been implemented into Polish law, one can defend the view that it was done rationally from the perspective of Polish media service providers. The liberalisation of quantitative advertising limits may contribute to raising more funds in the advertising market by broadcasters. It has been pointed out that leaving the existing regulations unchanged would place broadcasters under Polish jurisdiction in an unfavourable competitive position in relation to broadcasters of programmes available in Poland who are under the jurisdiction of other EU Member States. The intention to put providers of on-demand media services on an equal footing with providers of video-sharing platforms also seems reasonable, as the main objective of Directive 2018/1808 is to ensure proper competition between different categories of entities competing in the electronic media sector.

Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and works of art, as well as symbols, names, images, and designs that are used in commerce. Intellectual property is divided into two categories industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks industrial designs, and geographic indications of source; and copyright which includes literary and works of art such as novels, poems and plays films, musical works, works of art such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programmes. 1883 marked the birth of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the first major international treaty designed to help the people from one country obtain protection in other countries for their intellectual creations in the form of industrial property rights, known as: inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs. In 1886, copyright entered the international arena with the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. The aim of this Convention was to help nationals of its member States obtain international protection of their right to control, and receive payment for the use of their creative works such as: novels, short stories, poems plays; songs, operas, musicals, sonatas; and drawings, paintings sculptures, architectural works. The Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) was adopted in 1952 and formalised in 1955, as a complementary agreement to the Berne Convention. The UCC membership included the United States, and many developing countries that did not wish to comply with the Berne Convention, since they viewed its provisions as overly favourable to the developed world. Patent Cooperation Treaty, signed on June 19,1970, provides for the filing of a single international patent application which has the same effect as national applications filed in the designated countries. An applicant seeking protection may file one application and request protection in as many signatory states as needed. On November 6, 1925, the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs was adopted within the framework of the Paris Convention. Under the provisions of the Hague Agreement, any person entitled to effect an international deposit has the possibility of obtaining, by means of a single deposit protection for his industrial designs in a number of States with a minimum of formalities and of expense. The system of international registration of marks is governed by two treaties, the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, which dates from 1891, and the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement that was adopted in 1989. It entered into force on December 1, 1995, and came into operation on April 1, 1996. The reason for adopting the much more recent Protocol, following the original Madrid Agreement of 1891 (last amended at Stockholm in 1967), was the absence from the Madrid Union of some of the major countries in the trademark field, for example, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The Protocol is intended to make the Madrid system acceptable to more countries. The Rome Convention consists basically of the national treatment that a State grants under its domestic law to domestic performances, phonograms and broadcasts. Apart from the rights guaranteed by the Convention itself as constituting that minimum of protection, and subject to specific exceptions or reservations allowed for by the Convention, performers, producers of phonograms and broadcasting organisations to which the Convention applies, enjoy in Contracting States the same rights as those countries grant to their nationals. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is an international organisation dedicated to promoting the use and protection of works of the human spirit. These works, intellectual property, are expanding the bounds of science and technology and enriching the world of the arts. Through its work, WIPO plays an important role in enhancing the quality and enjoyment of life, as well as creating real wealth for nations. In 1974, WIPO became a specialised agency of the United Nations system of organisations, with a mandate to administer intellectual property matters recognised by the member states of the UN. With headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, WIPO is one of the 16 specialised agencies of the United Nations system of organisations. It administers 21 international treaties dealing with different aspects of intellectual property protection. The Organisation counts 177 nations as member states. One of the successes of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations was the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS Agreement), which came into effect on 1 January 1995, and up to date it the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property. The TRIPS Agreement is a minimum standards agreement, which allows Members to provide more extensive protection of intellectual property if they wish so. Members are left free to determine the appropriate method of implementing the provisions of the Agreement within their own legal system and practice On January 1, 1996, an Agreement Between the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization entered into force. It provides for cooperation concerning the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement, such as notification of laws and regulations and legal-technical assistance and technical co-operation in favour of developing countries. In the 21st century intellectual property will play an increasingly important role at the international stage. Works of the mind - intellectual property such as inventions, designs, trademarks, books, music, and films, are now used and enjoyed on every continent on the earth. In the new millennium international protection of intellectual property rights faces many new challenges; one of the most urgent is the need for states to adapt to and benefit from rapid and wide-ranging technological change, particularly in the field of information technology and the Internet.

Formulation of the problem, analysis of the publications on the topic. The opera by Lev Kolodub “Poet” is one of the recognized examples of modern “Shevchenkian music” and the outstanding achievement of the composer. From the very premiere at the Kharkiv Opera and Ballet Theater named after M. Lysenko (2001) to this day, this work has been preserved in the theater’s repertoire, and the 2011 Kharkiv performance has become a world event: in the recording of Ukrainian Radio, it was broadcast to 78 countries of the world by the European Broadcasting Union. L. Kolodub’s creativity attracts considerable attention of researchers and was covered in various sources, including monographic essays (Zahaikevych, M., 1973), scientific, encyclopedic, journalistic articles (Bielik Zolotariova, N., 2009; Sulim, R., 2010; Paukov, S., 2007), where the opera “Poet” is mentioned in different contexts. The reviews of premiere performances of this opera were given: in scenic version at Kharkiv (Velychko, Yu., 2002) and in philharmonic variant in Kyiv (Sikorska, I., 2004); in his interviews, the composer also recalled this work. Nevertheless, the holistic analysis of the concept of the opera and the image of its leading hero, as well as its vocal-stage interpretation by the Kharkiv Opera’s artistic collective, has not been carried out yet. The objective of this article is to formulate the concept of the stage embodiment of the Poet’s image in the opera of the same name by L. Kolodub, on the basis of its interpretation at the Kharkiv National Opera and Ballet Theatre and self-own scenic experience of the author of these words, which is currently the only performer of the protagonist’s part. Summary of the main material. The composer has many times emphasized the outstanding importance of Taras Shevchenko’s work for every Ukrainian. “I consider Shevchenko to be a personality who has arisen on the basis of Ukrainian folklore. She is understandable to everyone, everyone cares - this is a very social poet. Many perceive him naturally, since the problems of his works excite and affect people. Shevchenko is incredibly interesting! I constantly re-read him and every time I find a new one. The main thing is that he himself suffered, all this is transmitted in his poetry. At the same time, he is a very big optimist, a warm-hearted person” (from the interview, as cited by Koskin, V., 2008b). The composer noted that the scenic life of his opera was not easy: at first the work arose interest both in Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv (Children’s Music Theater on Podol, National Opera Theater). In 1988, when the opera was created, S. Turchak, who was supposed to be the conductor, suddenly passed away, and the new management of National Opera deleted it from their plans. Nevertheless, the opera was staged at Kyiv in the philharmonic performance in the arrangement for soloists, choir and brass band (2004). In I. Sikorska’s (2004) opinion, the composer “broke the stereotypes”, having redrafted the score in such a way that the brass orchestra’s timbre palette rivals the symphonic one. The opera is written on the basis of drama “Path” by O. Biletskyi and Z. Sagalov. The librettists’ idea was that the events of poet’s life intervene with the plot collisions of his works. For example, execution of Jun Hus symbolically coincides with the moment of death of Shevchenko himself. Moreover, the poet’s image is identified with heroes of his works. So, Colodub’s opera is the authors’ interpretation of Shevchenko-Kobzar’s fate from the XX century human’s point of view. Therefore, both, phantasmagoria and cinematographic methods are justified. The composer thought that “modern opera requires novel forms of delivering the material. The art of cinema and drama theater are developing fast, and opera esthetics is sort of frozen in the 19th century, she is not seeing even the heels of the far-ahead walking dramaturgy of the modern theater” (from the interview, Koskin, V., 2008a). The principle of introspection became the main dramaturgical principle of opera libretto’s construction. Avoiding the symphonic introduction, the first scene instantly transfers the viewer to the last March night of the Poet’s life. Being on the edge of eternity, the heavily ill Shevchenko is diving in memories. The Poet in the opera acts simultaneously as the event’s participant and its commenter, revealing gradually through different scenic roles: as a naïve creative person (scene 10), as a poet-citizen, who points out social injustices (scenes 3, 4, 15, 16), as a loving and beloved person (scenes 6, 7, 14, 20), or a thinker (scenes 11, 13, 1, 22). Over time, these roles are summing up, turning Shevchenko’s image into polyphonic and lifting the latter to the epic generalization. The image of the Poet become the symbol of the nation’s self-consciousness lost in the conditions of imperial Russia’s brutal reality (scene 29, “The burning of Jan Hus” – the Czech thinker is the hero of the Shevchenko’s poem of the same name). The opera’s authors do not separate the title hero from the storm of events and kaleidoscope of others scenic personages, which stipulates the specificity of vocal dramaturgy of Shevchenko’s opera character. The Poet’s vocal party does not include the developed solo or duet episodes, but it consists of concise replicas-phrases written by the recitative (Dargomyzhsky-Mussorgsky’s tradition) and several solo statements of arioso type. Conclusions. So, “Poet” by L. Kolodub, continuing the line of psychological opera-drama, vividly presented in the twentieth century by the works of D. Shostakovich, A. Berg, B. Britten and their followers, at the same time appeals to symbolism as to one of the main means of artistic expression. The image of Taras Shevchenko is interpreted as polysemantic: the fate of the Poet coincides in the perception of the audience with the fate of the Ukrainian people in their desire for liberty in a situation of opposition to the autocratic regime. And the freedom of expression of poetic and civic thought appears as a conscious necessity in the struggle for personal freedom, honor and human dignity. The logical culmination of the development of the image is the final scene of the auto-da-fé, where the burning of Jan Hus, the hero of Shevchenko’s poem, acts as a symbol of cruelty to the Poet himself, and to the people, of whose part he is. The musical language of the Poet’s vocal party, on the one hand, is quite naturally approaches to the style of Ukrainian kobzars folk lyrics; on the other hand, it inherits the recitative type of melodicism, which is a characteristic feature of psychological musical theater. Such a synthesis helps to reveal the image of the Poet as the outstanding representative and spiritual leader of the Ukrainian people, and, at the same time, to emphasize the rich content of his work, and the beauty of the inspirited poetic Word. Theopera provides rich artistic material for the study of innovative type of dramatic thinking in the context of the development of the national tradition of the genre and is promising for further study.

The article reveals the conceptual foundations of the policy and system for ensuring information security in the countries of Central Europe, in particular in Germany, Poland, Hungary and Croatia. It was found that Germany, Poland, Hungary and Croatia are member countries of the European Union and NATO, therefore they are subject to the rules and standards of these international organizations. It was established that the main documents and programs for ensuring information security and cybersecurity in the EU and NATO member states are: Document C-M (2002) 49 “Security in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)”, the Cybersecurity Concept, formulated based on the results of the Lisbon Summit, the Concept cybersecurity, formulated as a result of the Warsaw Summit, “European Criteria for Information Technology Security”, “Common Criteria for Information Technology Security”, “Network and Information Security: a European Political Approach”, “Safe Internet”, “Towards a Common Policy in the Field of Combating cybercrime”,“Protecting Europe from large-scale cyber attacks and disruption: strengthening preparedness, security and resilience”, Directive 95/46 / EU “On the protection of individuals in the context of the processing of personal data and the free circulation of such data ”. It was determined that in Germany the policy and system for ensuring information security and cybersecurity is based on the Law “On Security Inspection”, the “Act for the Protection of Information in Telecommunications”, the “Act on Freedom of Information”, and the Law “On Strengthening the Security of Information Systems”. It was established that in Poland the policy and system for ensuring information security and cybersecurity is based on the Law “On Mail”, the Law “On Television and Radio Broadcasting”, the Law “On State Relations with the Roman Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland”, the Cybersecurity Strategy of Poland, the Doctrine of Cybersecurity Poland, Poland's Information Security Doctrine. It has been established that in Hungary the policy and system for ensuring information security and cybersecurity is based on the Law “On the Protection of Information about a Person and Access to Information of Public Interest”, the Law “On the Right to Information Self-Determination and Freedom of Information”, the Law “On Processing and Protection medical information and related personal data”, “Act on Electronic Information Security of State and Municipal Bodies”, Hungarian National Security Strategy, Hungarian National Cybersecurity Strategy. It was determined that in Croatia the policy and system for ensuring information security and cyber security is based on the “Information Security Act” and the National Cyber Security Strategy. It has been proved that Ukraine, which has chosen the course of European integration, should be guided by a number of information security strategies identified in the member states of the European Union, in particular in Germany, Poland, Hungary and Croatia.

Romania’s adherence to the European Union implied the previous and entire acceptance of the Community acquis in force on 31st of December 1999. Our country didn’t request any period of transition or of derogation in this meaning, being among the first states from East Europe that regulated the audio-visual department, after the occidental model. In order to harmonize the Romanian legislation with the European standards, The National Council of the Audio-Visual Department adopted and transposed a whole range of acts and decisions that we will try to synthesize in our paper. In the adoption of the acquis, the NAC has to watch whether the adopted decisions are conform to the progress at European level. It is necessary to continue strengthening the administrative capacities of NAC to ensure a transparent and predictable implementation of the regulatory framework in the field of audiovisual policy. In Romania, the normative acts that regulate aspects concerning general advertising and promotional communication through television are: Advertising Act and the Broadcasting Act.

This article analyses the response of European Public Service Media to the crisis caused by Covid-19, especially the impact of the pandemic on Europe’s major public broadcasters, with a particular focus on technical and professional constraints, alterations in audience volume and habits, production strategies, type of broadcast content and journalists’ routines. The research is based on public information from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and 19 in-depth, structured interviews with a convenience sample of innovation and strategy managers from public broadcasters in Austria (ORF), Belgium (VRT and RTBF), Denmark (DR), Finland (YLE), France (France TV), Germany (ARD and ZDF), Great Britain (BBC), Ireland (RTÉ), Italy (RAI), Netherlands (NPO), Portugal (RTP), Spain (RTVE), Sweden (SVT), Switzerland (RTS) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The results indicate that the corporate projection of PSM was increased by emphasising their role as essential services and their defence of the values that characterise them. The pandemic forced the adaptation of programme production from technical standards to an emotional approach, accelerating a formal hybridisation with native online contents. Dependence on software grew and newsmaking processes were altered towards ‘remote journalism’. Changes are drawn that may be maintained in the future.

Abstract: Original television fiction that has been created at a national and regional level plays a leading role in European countries. This paper presents research on the editorial strategies, cultural indicators, and scheduling of new fiction productions on national television networks in some of Western Europe's major countries during the second half of the 1990s. The reasons behind Western Europe's strategic choices in national television production are related to the recent history of European broadcasting, the present audiovisual landscape of these countries, the role of commercial and public service television companies, and the values of the producers and professionals behind the productions. These factors are today converging towards a greater importance for national television production in Europe. Résumé: À la télévision, les fictions originales créées aux niveaux nationaux et régionaux jouent un rôle clé dans certains pays européens. Cet article présente des recherches sur les stratégies créatives, les indicateurs culturels, et la programmation de nouvelles productions fictives aux réseaux de télévision nationaux dans quelques-uns des plus grands pays de l'Europe de l'Ouest pendant la seconde moitié des années quatre-vingt-dix. Dans ces pays, les choix stratégiques faits en produisant des émissions nationales ont comme influence: le paysage audiovisuel actuel dans chaque pays; l'histoire récente de la radiodiffusion européenne; le rôle des compagnies de télévision commerciales et publiques; et les valeurs des producteurs et des professionnels qui créent ces émissions. Ces facteurs convergent aujourd'hui pour donner plus d'importance à la production télévisuelle nationale en Europe.

McElroy R, Nielsen JI and Noonan C (2018) Small is beautiful? The salience of scale and power to three European cultures of TV production. Critical Studies in Television 13(2): 169–187. DOI: 10.1177/1749602018763566. In this article, the following corrections apply to Table 1: ‘Overview of the broadcasters’ on page 171: The National Audience Share for S4C of 4.2% is referenced as BARB however this data is taken from correspondence with S4C directly. Note b should be attributed to the National Audience Share for S4C: 4.2%. The following correction applies to the first sentence of the first paragraph on page 176. This sentence should read: Therefore, a second source of data was gathered through exchanges at an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded international network on ‘Television in Small Nations’ ( https://smallnationstv.org/ ), a collaborative project between the authors and industry partners including TG4, S4C and the European Broadcasting Union.

Germany and Croatia are among first European countries that have adopted the strategy of switchingfrom DVB-T h.264 system to DVB-T2 h.265 (HEVC) system of broadcasting for terrestrial television. The newerh.265 system has better performance compared to previously h.264 especially in terms of efficiency oftransmitting. On a single frequency, h.265 enables much more data flow, which means more channels and/orbetter quality of transmitting. This paper investigates the efficiency and rentability of such transition andcompares Germany as s big and Croatia as a small European country. The aim of the analysis is to show thebackground for such a technological change in these two countries and to compare it having in mind the differenceof capacities necessary for terrestrial transmission. This switch to the DVB-T2 HEVC system represents theclassical example of technological progress in practice, and is especially interesting in the period when othercountries are setting up strategies for the future of terrestrial television transmission.

The active usage of the technologies, constant exchange of information and its use demanded a clear regulation of relations within the functioning of the digital market. In the context of the implementation of the Association Agreements between Ukraine and the EU, it seems necessary to study the positive experience of regulating relations and protecting intellectual property rights within the European Union digital market. The article explores such EU secondary law acts as directives and regulations that determine the foundations and features of the functioning of EU digital market actors. In particular, it examined Directive (EU) 2019/789 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 laying down rules on the use of copyright and related rights applicable to certain online broadcasting and retransmission of broadcasting programs and amending Council Directive 93/83 EEC (2019), which regulates the principles governing the transboundary transmission of television and radio broadcasting via the satellite network; Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/2019, which amended and expended 7 existing Directives governing relevant issues, Regulation (EU) 2019/517 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2019 on the implementation and operation of the .eu top-level domain name and amending and repealing Regulation (EU) No 733/2002, and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 874/2002 (2019), which provides a number of important innovations for the .eu top-level domain name and Regulation (EU) No 2017/1128 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the cross-border movement of Internet content services in the internal market, which identifies legitimate access to portable internet-Content. Not only when they are in their own country, but also when moving within the EU. Key words: digital market; legal regulation of EU digital market functioning; .eu top-level domain name; portable internet content; cross-border transmission.

Abstract: Broadcasting legislation in Eastern and Central Europe after 1989, in the transition period from a totalitarian into a democratic society, falls into four different stages. The first stage was characterized by an enthusiastic awakening to the new media freedoms. The second stage was dominated by a disillusionment. The third stage was overshadowed by a growing power struggle among different political groups to get control over broadcasting, and, in particular, over national television. And, depending upon the level of democracy reached in these countries, a fourth stage may see the building of new public and private radio and television institutions, based on democratic constitutions and media laws, serving the public independent from governmental control, competing in a free broadcasting market for high viewing rates, and integrating, step by step, into transnational European broadcasting frameworks and structures. The speed of transition is varying and will continue to vary from country to country. Résumé: En ce qui regarda la radiodiffusion en Europe centrale et orientale après 1989, dans une période de transition entre société totalitaire et société démocratique, la législation suivit quatre étapes consécutives. Un éveil enthousiaste aux nouvelles libertés dans les médias caractérisa la première étape. La désillusion domina la deuxième. La troisième étape fut marquée par une lutte de pouvoir croissante entre des groupes politiques différents pour contrôler la radiodiffusion, particulièrement la télévision nationale. Et, dépendant du niveau de démocratie atteint dans ces pays, une quatrième étape put mener à de nouvelles institutions de radio et de télévision, soit publiques, soit privées, adoptant des principes et des lois démocratiques, servant le public indépendamment de contrôles gouvernementaux, se faisant concurrence pour atteindre de vastes auditoires dans des marchés libres, et s'intégrant peu à peu aux systèmes de radiodiffusion transnationaux en Europe. La vitesse de transition a jusqu'ici été variable, et continuera à l'être de pays en pays.

The Eurovision Song Contest is a popular annual international song competition organized by the European Broadcasting Union. The winner is decided by the audience and expert juries from each participating nation, which is why the analysis of its voting network offers a great insight into what factors, beside the quality of the performances, influence the voting decisions. In this paper, we present the findings of the analysis of the voting network together with the results of a predictive model based on the collected data. We touch upon the methodology used and describe the dataset that we are analyzing. The results include a number of general features of the voting networks, the exposed communities of countries that award significantly more points to each other than would be expected and predictions on what the biggest factors that lead to this phenomenon are. Multiple known favourable relationships are exposed, such as the one between Greece and Cyprus, between Scandinavian countries and between the countries of the former Yugoslavia. A general trend of neighbouring countries forming alliances is observed, which is especially apparent if they are culturally or geographically separated from others. Furthermore, it is also observed how membership in communities of common point exchange helps achieve better results in the competition and that this trend is on the rise. At the same time, countries involved in relationships of neglect often achieve poorer results. We also try out a model in order to predict the votes based on the network structure of both previous votes and song preferences of nations, which was found not to offer significant improvement of predictions compared to betting tables alone.

Mobile In many countries, more people have mobile phones than they do fixed-line phones. Mobile phones are one of the fastest growing technologies ever, outstripping even the internet in many respects. With the advent and widespread deployment of digital systems, mobile phones were used by an estimated 1, 158, 254, 300 people worldwide in 2002 (up from approximately 91 million in 1995), 51. 4% of total telephone subscribers (ITU). One of the reasons for this is mobility itself: the ability for people to talk on the phone wherever they are. The communicative possibilities opened up by mobile phones have produced new uses and new discourses (see Katz and Aakhus; Brown, Green, and Harper; and Plant). Contemporary soundscapes now feature not only voice calls in previously quiet public spaces such as buses or restaurants but also the aural irruptions of customised polyphonic ringtones identifying whose phone is ringing by the tune downloaded. The mobile phone plays an important role in contemporary visual and material culture as fashion item and status symbol. Most tragically one might point to the tableau of people in the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, or aboard a plane about to crash, calling their loved ones to say good-bye (Galvin). By contrast, one can look on at the bathos of Australian cricketer Shane Warne’s predilection for pressing his mobile phone into service to arrange wanted and unwanted assignations while on tour. In this article, I wish to consider another important and so far also under-theorised aspect of mobile phones: text. Of contemporary textual and semiotic systems, mobile text is only a recent addition. Yet it is already produces millions of inscriptions each day, and promises to be of far-reaching significance. Txt Txt msg ws an acidnt. no 1 expcted it. Whn the 1st txt msg ws sent, in 1993 by Nokia eng stdnt Riku Pihkonen, the telcom cpnies thought it ws nt important. SMS – Short Message Service – ws nt considrd a majr pt of GSM. Like mny teks, the *pwr* of txt — indeed, the *pwr* of the fon — wz discvrd by users. In the case of txt mssng, the usrs were the yng or poor in the W and E. (Agar 105) As Jon Agar suggests in Constant Touch, textual communication through mobile phone was an after-thought. Mobile phones use radio waves, operating on a cellular system. The first such mobile service went live in Chicago in December 1978, in Sweden in 1981, in January 1985 in the United Kingdom (Agar), and in the mid-1980s in Australia. Mobile cellular systems allowed efficient sharing of scarce spectrum, improvements in handsets and quality, drawing on advances in science and engineering. In the first instance, technology designers, manufacturers, and mobile phone companies had been preoccupied with transferring telephone capabilities and culture to the mobile phone platform. With the growth in data communications from the 1960s onwards, consideration had been given to data capabilities of mobile phone. One difficulty, however, had been the poor quality and slow transfer rates of data communications over mobile networks, especially with first-generation analogue and early second-generation digital mobile phones. As the internet was widely and wildly adopted in the early to mid-1990s, mobile phone proponents looked at mimicking internet and online data services possibilities on their hand-held devices. What could work on a computer screen, it was thought, could be reinvented in miniature for the mobile phone — and hence much money was invested into the wireless access protocol (or WAP), which spectacularly flopped. The future of mobiles as a material support for text culture was not to lie, at first at least, in aping the world-wide web for the phone. It came from an unexpected direction: cheap, simple letters, spelling out short messages with strange new ellipses. SMS was built into the European Global System for Mobile (GSM) standard as an insignificant, additional capability. A number of telecommunications manufacturers thought so little of the SMS as not to not design or even offer the equipment needed (the servers, for instance) for the distribution of the messages. The character sets were limited, the keyboards small, the typeface displays rudimentary, and there was no acknowledgement that messages were actually received by the recipient. Yet SMS was cheap, and it offered one-to-one, or one-to-many, text communications that could be read at leisure, or more often, immediately. SMS was avidly taken up by young people, forming a new culture of media use. Sending a text message offered a relatively cheap and affordable alternative to the still expensive timed calls of voice mobile. In its early beginnings, mobile text can be seen as a subcultural activity. The text culture featured compressed, cryptic messages, with users devising their own abbreviations and grammar. One of the reasons young people took to texting was a tactic of consolidating and shaping their own shared culture, in distinction from the general culture dominated by their parents and other adults. Mobile texting become involved in a wider reworking of youth culture, involving other new media forms and technologies, and cultural developments (Butcher and Thomas). Another subculture that also was in the vanguard of SMS was the Deaf ‘community’. Though the Alexander Graham Bell, celebrated as the inventor of the telephone, very much had his hearing-impaired wife in mind in devising a new form of communication, Deaf people have been systematically left off the telecommunications network since this time. Deaf people pioneered an earlier form of text communications based on the Baudot standard, used for telex communications. Known as teletypewriter (TTY), or telecommunications device for the Deaf (TDD) in the US, this technology allowed Deaf people to communicate with each other by connecting such devices to the phone network. The addition of a relay service (established in Australia in the mid-1990s after much government resistance) allows Deaf people to communicate with hearing people without TTYs (Goggin & Newell). Connecting TTYs to mobile phones have been a vexed issue, however, because the digital phone network in Australia does not allow compatibility. For this reason, and because of other features, Deaf people have become avid users of SMS (Harper). An especially favoured device in Europe has been the Nokia Communicator, with its hinged keyboard. The move from a ‘restricted’, ‘subcultural’ economy to a ‘general’ economy sees mobile texting become incorporated in the semiotic texture and prosaic practices of everyday life. Many users were already familiar with the new conventions already developed around electronic mail, with shorter, crisper messages sent and received — more conversation-like than other correspondence. Unlike phone calls, email is asynchronous. The sender can respond immediately, and the reply will be received with seconds. However, they can also choose to reply at their leisure. Similarly, for the adept user, SMS offers considerable advantages over voice communications, because it makes textual production mobile. Writing and reading can take place wherever a mobile phone can be turned on: in the street, on the train, in the club, in the lecture theatre, in bed. The body writes differently too. Writing with a pen takes a finger and thumb. Typing on a keyboard requires between two and ten fingers. The mobile phone uses the ‘fifth finger’ — the thumb. Always too early, and too late, to speculate on contemporary culture (Morris), it is worth analyzing the textuality of mobile text. Theorists of media, especially television, have insisted on understanding the specific textual modes of different cultural forms. We are familiar with this imperative, and other methods of making visible and decentring structures of text, and the institutions which animate and frame them (whether author or producer; reader or audience; the cultural expectations encoded in genre; the inscriptions in technology). In formal terms, mobile text can be described as involving elision, great compression, and open-endedness. Its channels of communication physically constrain the composition of a very long single text message. Imagine sending James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake in one text message. How long would it take to key in this exemplar of the disintegration of the cultural form of the novel? How long would it take to read? How would one navigate the text? Imagine sending the Courier-Mail or Financial Review newspaper over a series of text messages? The concept of the ‘news’, with all its cultural baggage, is being reconfigured by mobile text — more along the lines of the older technology of the telegraph, perhaps: a few words suffices to signify what is important. Mobile textuality, then, involves a radical fragmentation and unpredictable seriality of text lexia (Barthes). Sometimes a mobile text looks singular: saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’, or sending your name and ID number to obtain your high school or university results. Yet, like a telephone conversation, or any text perhaps, its structure is always predicated upon, and haunted by, the other. Its imagined reader always has a mobile phone too, little time, no fixed address (except that hailed by the network’s radio transmitter), and a finger poised to respond. Mobile text has structure and channels. Yet, like all text, our reading and writing of it reworks those fixities and makes destabilizes our ‘clear’ communication. After all, mobile textuality has a set of new pre-conditions and fragilities. It introduces new sorts of ‘noise’ to signal problems to annoy those theorists cleaving to the Shannon and Weaver linear model of communication; signals often drop out; there is a network confirmation (and message displayed) that text messages have been sent, but no system guarantee that they have been received. Our friend or service provider might text us back, but how do we know that they got our text message? Commodity We are familiar now with the pleasures of mobile text, the smile of alerting a friend to our arrival, celebrating good news, jilting a lover, making a threat, firing a worker, flirting and picking-up. Text culture has a new vector of mobility, invented by its users, but now coveted and commodified by businesses who did not see it coming in the first place. Nimble in its keystrokes, rich in expressivity and cultural invention, but relatively rudimentary in its technical characteristics, mobile text culture has finally registered in the boardrooms of communications companies. Not only is SMS the preferred medium of mobile phone users to keep in touch with each other, SMS has insinuated itself into previously separate communication industries arenas. In 2002-2003 SMS became firmly established in television broadcasting. Finally, interactive television had arrived after many years of prototyping and being heralded. The keenly awaited back-channel for television arrives courtesy not of cable or satellite television, nor an extra fixed-phone line. It’s the mobile phone, stupid! Big Brother was not only a watershed in reality television, but also in convergent media. Less obvious perhaps than supplementary viewing, or biographies, or chat on Big Brother websites around the world was the use of SMS for voting. SMS is now routinely used by mainstream television channels for viewer feedback, contest entry, and program information. As well as its widespread deployment in broadcasting, mobile text culture has been the language of prosaic, everyday transactions. Slipping into a café at Bronte Beach in Sydney, why not pay your parking meter via SMS? You’ll even receive a warning when your time is up. The mobile is becoming the ‘electronic purse’, with SMS providing its syntax and sentences. The belated ingenuity of those fascinated by the economics of mobile text has also coincided with a technological reworking of its possibilities, with new implications for its semiotic possibilities. Multimedia messaging (MMS) has now been deployed, on capable digital phones (an instance of what has been called 2.5 generation [G] digital phones) and third-generation networks. MMS allows images, video, and audio to be communicated. At one level, this sort of capability can be user-generated, as in the popularity of mobiles that take pictures and send these to other users. Television broadcasters are also interested in the capability to send video clips of favourite programs to viewers. Not content with the revenues raised from millions of standard-priced SMS, and now MMS transactions, commercial participants along the value chain are keenly awaiting the deployment of what is called ‘premium rate’ SMS and MMS services. These services will involve the delivery of desirable content via SMS and MMS, and be priced at a premium. Products and services are likely to include: one-to-one textchat; subscription services (content delivered on handset); multi-party text chat (such as chat rooms); adult entertainment services; multi-part messages (such as text communications plus downloads); download of video or ringtones. In August 2003, one text-chat service charged $4.40 for a pair of SMS. Pwr At the end of 2003, we have scarcely registered the textual practices and systems in mobile text, a culture that sprang up in the interstices of telecommunications. It may be urgent that we do think about the stakes here, as SMS is being extended and commodified. There are obvious and serious policy issues in premium rate SMS and MMS services, and questions concerning the political economy in which these are embedded. Yet there are cultural questions too, with intricate ramifications. How do we understand the effects of mobile textuality, rewriting the telephone book for this new cultural form (Ronell). What are the new genres emerging? And what are the implications for cultural practice and policy? Does it matter, for instance, that new MMS and 3rd generation mobile platforms are not being designed or offered with any-to-any capabilities in mind: allowing any user to upload and send multimedia communications to other any. True, as the example of SMS shows, the inventiveness of users is difficult to foresee and predict, and so new forms of mobile text may have all sorts of relationships with content and communication. However, there are worrying signs of these developing mobile circuits being programmed for narrow channels of retail purchase of cultural products rather than open-source, open-architecture, publicly usable nodes of connection. Works Cited Agar, Jon. Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone. Cambridge: Icon, 2003. Barthes, Roland. S/Z. Trans. Richard Miller. New York: Hill & Wang, 1974. Brown, Barry, Green, Nicola, and Harper, Richard, eds. Wireless World: Social, Cultural, and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. London: Springer Verlag, 2001. Butcher, Melissa, and Thomas, Mandy, eds. Ingenious: Emerging youth cultures in urban Australia. Melbourne: Pluto, 2003. Galvin, Michael. ‘September 11 and the Logistics of Communication.’ Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 17.3 (2003): 303-13. Goggin, Gerard, and Newell, Christopher. Digital Disability: The Social Construction of Digital in New Media. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Harper, Phil. ‘Networking the Deaf Nation.’ Australian Journal of Communication 30. 3 (2003), in press. International Telecommunications Union (ITU). ‘Mobile Cellular, subscribers per 100 people.’ World Telecommunication Indicators <http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/> accessed 13 October 2003. Katz, James E., and Aakhus, Mark, eds. Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 2002. Morris, Meaghan. Too Soon, Too Late: History in Popular Culture. Bloomington and Indianapolis: U of Indiana P, 1998. Plant, Sadie. On the Mobile: The Effects of Mobile Telephones on Social and Individual Life. < http://www.motorola.com/mot/documents/0,1028,296,00.pdf> accessed 5 October 2003. Ronell, Avital. The Telephone Book: Technology—schizophrenia—electric speech. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1989. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Goggin, Gerard. "‘mobile text’" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0401/03-goggin.php>. APA Style Goggin, G. (2004, Jan 12). ‘mobile text’. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 7, <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0401/03-goggin.php>

At the current stage of digital transformations for Ukraine as a European state, an extremely necessary task is to mobilize the potential of the information sphere to ensure sustainable development of the national economy, the entry of countries on such indicators of socio-economic development that allow equals to join the modern European economic system. In the article, the author finds that the development of the information sphere is inextricably linked with the state of implementation of modern information technologies, which are intensively penetrating the socio-economic system, playing an important role in the globalization transformation processes of Ukraine’s economy. The integrated assessment of the development of the information sphere of the Ukrainian economy allowed to identify its main features and current problems: low competitiveness of the information sphere; insufficient use of innovations and outdated fixed assets of information enterprises; low productivity and work motivation; reduction of capitalization of enterprises and, accordingly, problems with attracting the necessary resources and investments; there is a lack of qualified engineering and technical personnel who contribute to the creation of a sufficiently favorable and competitive environment for the relevant producers of information products, promoting the coherence of relations between socio-economic institutions in the information sphere; insufficient reliability and capacity of communication and telecommunications networks; lack of target character for the production of computer equipment; insufficient state support for projects in the field of informatization; lack of strategic framework for the implementation of informatization programs and projects within the National Informatization Program; the need to adapt the institutional environment that provides development in the field of telecommunications, television and radio broadcasting, other forms of mass electronic communication to the conditions of convergent development of these sectors of the information sphere; imperfection of legal levers to ensure media development; lack of system and integrity of guiding documents of state policy in the information sphere and others. Keywords: information sphere, development, provision, national economy, state policy.

At the current stage of digital transformations for Ukraine as a European state, an extremely necessary task is to mobilize the potential of the information sphere to ensure sustainable development of the national economy, the entry of countries on such indicators of socio-economic development that allow equals to join the modern European economic system. In the article, the author finds that the development of the information sphere is inextricably linked with the state of implementation of modern information technologies, which are intensively penetrating the socio-economic system, playing an important role in the globalization transformation processes of Ukraine’s economy. The integrated assessment of the development of the information sphere of the Ukrainian economy allowed to identify its main features and current problems: low competitiveness of the information sphere; insufficient use of innovations and outdated fixed assets of information enterprises; low productivity and work motivation; reduction of capitalization of enterprises and, accordingly, problems with attracting the necessary resources and investments; there is a lack of qualified engineering and technical personnel who contribute to the creation of a sufficiently favorable and competitive environment for the relevant producers of information products, promoting the coherence of relations between socio-economic institutions in the information sphere; insufficient reliability and capacity of communication and telecommunications networks; lack of target character for the production of computer equipment; insufficient state support for projects in the field of informatization; lack of strategic framework for the implementation of informatization programs and projects within the National Informatization Program; the need to adapt the institutional environment that provides development in the field of telecommunications, television and radio broadcasting, other forms of mass electronic communication to the conditions of convergent development of these sectors of the information sphere; imperfection of legal levers to ensure media development; lack of system and integrity of guiding documents of state policy in the information sphere and others. Keywords: information sphere, development, provision, national economy, state policy.

For the past twenty years, academics and other social commentators have, by and large, shared the view that the phase of modernity through which we are currently passing is defined by two interrelated catalysts of change: the physical movement of people and the virtual movement of information around the globe. As we enter the second decade of the new millennium, it is certainly a timely moment to reflect upon the ways in which the prognoses of the scholars and scientists writing in the late twentieth century have come to pass, especially since—during the time this special issue has been in press—the revolutions that are gathering pace in the Arab world appear to be realising the theoretical prediction that the ever-increasing “flows” of people and information would ultimately bring about the end of the nation-state and herald an era of transnationalism (Appadurai, Urry). For writers like Arjun Appadurai, moreover, the concept of diaspora was key to grasping how this new world order would take shape, and how it would operate: Diasporic public spheres, diverse amongst themselves, are the crucibles of a postnational political order. The engines of their discourse are mass media (both interactive and expressive) and the movement of refugees, activists, students, laborers. It may be that the emergent postnational order proves not to be a system of homogeneous units (as with the current system of nation-states) but a system based on relations between heterogeneous units (some social movements, some interest groups, some professional bodies, some non-governmental organizations, some armed constabularies, some judicial bodies) ... In the short run, as we can see already, it is likely to be a world of increased incivility and violence. In the longer run, free from the constraints of the nation form, we may find that cultural freedom and sustainable justice in the world do not presuppose the uniform and general existence of the nation-state. This unsettling possibility could be the most exciting dividend of living in modernity at large. (23) In this editorial, we would like to return to the “here and now” of the late 1990s in which theorists like Arjun Appaduri, Ulrich Beck, John Urry, Zygmunt Bauman, Robert Robertson and others were “imagining” the consequences of both globalisation and glocalisation for the twenty-first century in order that we may better assess what is, indeed, coming to pass. While most of their prognoses for this “second modernity” have proven remarkably accurate, it is their—self-confessed—inability to forecast either the nature or the extent of the digital revolution that most vividly captures the distance between the mid-1990s and now; and it is precisely the consequences of this extraordinary technological revolution on the twin concepts of “glocality” and “diaspora” that the research featured in this special issue seeks to capture. Glocal Imaginaries Appadurai’s endeavours to show how globalisation was rapidly making itself felt as a “structure of feeling” (Williams in Appadurai 189) as well as a material “fact” was also implicit in our conceptualisation of the conference, “Glocal Imaginaries: Writing/Migration/Place,” which gave rise to this special issue. This conference, which was the culmination of the AHRC-funded project “Moving Manchester: Literature/Migration/Place (2006-10)”, constituted a unique opportunity to gain an international, cross-disciplinary perspective on urgent and topical debates concerning mobility and migration in the early twenty-first century and the strand “Networked Diasporas” was one of the best represented on the program. Attracting papers on broadcast media as well as the new digital technologies, the strand was strikingly international in terms of the speakers’ countries of origin, as is this special issue which brings together research from six European countries, Australia and the Indian subcontinent. The “case-studies” represented in these articles may therefore be seen to constitute something of a “state-of-the-art” snapshot of how Appadurai’s “glocal imaginary” is being lived out across the globe in the early years of the twenty-first century. In this respect, the collection proves that his hunch with regards to the signal importance of the “mass-media” in redefining our spatial and temporal coordinates of being and belonging was correct: The third and final factor to be addressed here is the role of the mass-media, especially in its electronic forms, in creating new sorts of disjuncture between spatial and virtual neighborhoods. This disjuncture has both utopian and dystopian potentials, and there is no easy way to tell how these may play themselves out in the future of the production of locality. (194) The articles collected here certainly do serve as testament to the “bewildering plethora of changes in ... media environments” (195) that Appadurai envisaged, and yet it can clearly also be argued that this agent of glocalisation has not yet brought about the demise of the nation-state in the way (or at the speed) that many commentators predicted. Digital Diasporas in a Transnational World Reviewing the work of the leading social science theorists working in the field during the late 1990s, it quickly becomes evident that: (a) the belief that globalisation presented a threat to the nation-state was widely held; and (b) that the “jury” was undecided as to whether this would prove a good or bad thing in the years to come. While the commentators concerned did their best to complexify both their analysis of the present and their view of the future, it is interesting to observe, in retrospect, how the rhetoric of both utopia and dystopia invaded their discourse in almost equal measure. We have already seen how Appadurai, in his 1996 publication, Modernity at Large, looks beyond the “increased incivility and violence” of the “short term” to a world “free from the constraints of the nation form,” while Roger Bromley, following Agamben and Deleuze as well as Appadurai, typifies a generation of literary and cultural critics who have paid tribute to the way in which the arts (and, in particular, storytelling) have enabled subjects to break free from their national (af)filiations (Pearce, Devolving 17) and discover new “de-territorialised” (Deleuze and Guattari) modes of being and belonging. Alongside this “hope,” however, the forces and agents of globalisation were also regarded with a good deal of suspicion and fear, as is evidenced in Ulrich Beck’s What is Globalization? In his overview of the theorists who were then perceived to be leading the debate, Beck draws distinctions between what was perceived to be the “engine” of globalisation (31), but is clearly most exercised by the manner in which the transformation has taken shape: Without a revolution, without even any change in laws or constitutions, an attack has been launched “in the normal course of business”, as it were, upon the material lifelines of modern national societies. First, the transnational corporations are to export jobs to parts of the world where labour costs and workplace obligations are lowest. Second, the computer-generation of worldwide proximity enables them to break down and disperse goods and services, and produce them through a division of labour in different parts of the world, so that national and corporate labels inevitably become illusory. (3; italics in the original) Beck’s concern is clearly that all these changes have taken place without the nation-states of the world being directly involved in any way: transnational corporations began to take advantage of the new “mobility” available to them without having to secure the agreement of any government (“Companies can produce in one country, pay taxes in another and demand state infrastructural spending in yet another”; 4-5); the export of the labour market through the use of digital communications (stereotypically, call centres in India) was similarly unregulated; and the world economy, as a consequence, was in the process of becoming detached from the processes of either production or consumption (“capitalism without labour”; 5-7). Vis-à-vis the dystopian endgame of this effective “bypassing” of the nation-state, Beck is especially troubled about the fate of the human rights legislation that nation-states around the world have developed, with immense effort and over time (e.g. employment law, trade unions, universal welfare provision) and cites Zygmunt Bauman’s caution that globalisation will, at worst, result in widespread “global wealth” and “local poverty” (31). Further, he ends his book with a fully apocalyptic vision, “the Brazilianization of Europe” (161-3), which unapologetically calls upon the conventions of science fiction to imagine a worst-case scenario for a Europe without nations. While fourteen or fifteen years is evidently not enough time to put Beck’s prognosis to the test, most readers would probably agree that we are still some way away from such a Europe. Although the material wealth and presence of the transnational corporations strikes a chord, especially if we include the world banks and finance organisations in their number, the financial crisis that has rocked the world for the past three years, along with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ascendancy of Al-Qaida (all things yet to happen when Beck was writing in 1997), has arguably resulted in the nations of Europe reinforcing their (respective and collective) legal, fiscal, and political might through rigorous new policing of their physical borders and regulation of their citizens through “austerity measures” of an order not seen since World War Two. In other words, while the processes of globalisation have clearly been instrumental in creating the financial crisis that Europe is presently grappling with and does, indeed, expose the extent to which the world economy now operates outside the control of the nation-state, the nation-state still exists very palpably for all its citizens (whether permanent or migrant) as an agent of control, welfare, and social justice. This may, indeed, cause us to conclude that Bauman’s vision of a world in which globalisation would make itself felt very differently for some groups than others came closest to what is taking shape: true, the transnationals have seized significant political and economic power from the nation-state, but this has not meant the end of the nation-state; rather, the change is being experienced as a re-trenching of whatever power the nation-state still has (and this, of course, is considerable) over its citizens in their “local”, everyday lives (Bauman 55). If we now turn to the portrait of Europe painted by the articles that constitute this special issue, we see further evidence of transglobal processes and practices operating in a realm oblivious to local (including national) concerns. While our authors are generally more concerned with the flows of information and “identity” than business or finance (Appaduri’s “ethnoscapes,” “technoscapes,” and “ideoscapes”: 33-7), there is the same impression that this “circulation” (Latour) is effectively bypassing the state at one level (the virtual), whilst remaining very materially bound by it at another. In other words, and following Bauman, we would suggest that it is quite possible for contemporary subjects to be both the agents and subjects of globalisation: a paradox that, as we shall go on to demonstrate, is given particularly vivid expression in the case of diasporic and/or migrant peoples who may be able to bypass the state in the manufacture of their “virtual” identities/communities) but who (Cohen) remain very much its subjects (or, indeed, “non-subjects”) when attempting movement in the material realm. Two of the articles in the collection (Leurs & Ponzanesi and Marcheva) deal directly with the exponential growth of “digital diasporas” (sometimes referred to as “e-diasporas”) since the inception of Facebook in 2004, and both provide specific illustrations of the way in which the nation-state both has, and has not, been transcended. First, it quickly becomes clear that for the (largely) “youthful” (Leurs & Ponzanesi) participants of nationally inscribed networking sites (e.g. “discovernikkei” (Japan), “Hyves” (Netherlands), “Bulgarians in the UK” (Bulgaria)), shared national identity is a means and not an end. In other words, although the participants of these sites might share in and actively produce a fond and nostalgic image of their “homeland” (Marcheva), they are rarely concerned with it as a material or political entity and an expression of their national identities is rapidly supplemented by the sharing of other (global) identity markers. Leurs & Ponzanesi invoke Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the “rhizome” to describe the way in which social networkers “weave” a “rhizomatic path” to identity, gradually accumulating a hybrid set of affiliations. Indeed, the extent to which the “nation” disappears on such sites can be remarkable as was also observed in our investigation of the digital storytelling site, “Capture Wales” (BBC) (Pearce, "Writing"). Although this BBC site was set up to capture the voices of the Welsh nation in the early twenty-first century through a collection of (largely) autobiographical stories, very few of the participants mention either Wales or their “Welshness” in the stories that they tell. Further, where the “home” nation is (re)imagined, it is generally in an idealised, or highly personalised, form (e.g. stories about one’s own family) or through a sharing of (perceived and actual) cultural idiosyncrasies (Marcheva on “You know you’re a Bulgarian when …”) rather than an engagement with the nation-state per se. As Leurs & Ponzanesi observe: “We can see how the importance of the nation-state gets obscured as diasporic youth, through cultural hybridisation of youth culture and ethnic ties initiate subcultures and offer resistance to mainstream cultural forms.” Both the articles just discussed also note the shading of the “national” into the “transnational” on the social networking sites they discuss, and “transnationalism”—in the sense of many different nations and their diasporas being united through a common interest or cause—is also a focus of Pikner’s article on “collective actions” in Europe (notably, “EuroMayDay” and “My Estonia”) and Harb’s highly topical account of the role of both broadcast media (principally, Al-Jazeera) and social media in the revolutions and uprisings currently sweeping through the Arab world (spring 2011). On this point, it should be noted that Harb identifies this as the moment when Facebook’s erstwhile predominantly social function was displaced by a manifestly political one. From this we must conclude that both transnationalism and social media sites can be put to very different ends: while young people in relatively privileged democratic countries might embrace transnationalism as an expression of their desire to “rise above” national politics, the youth of the Arab world have engaged it as a means of generating solidarity for nationalist insurgency and liberation. Another instance of “g/local” digital solidarity exceeding national borders is to be found in Johanna Sumiala’s article on the circulatory power of the Internet in the Kauhajoki school shooting which took place Finland in 2008. As well as using the Internet to “stage manage” his rampage, the Kauhajoki shooter (whose name the author chose to withhold for ethical reasons) was subsequently found to have been a member of numerous Web-based “hate groups”, many of them originating in the United States and, as a consequence, may be understood to have committed his crime on behalf of a transnational community: what Sumiala has defined as a “networked community of destruction.” It must also be noted, however, that the school shootings were experienced as a very local tragedy in Finland itself and, although the shooter may have been psychically located in a transnational hyper-reality when he undertook the killings, it is his nation-state that has had to deal with the trauma and shame in the long term. Woodward and Brown & Rutherford, meanwhile, show that it remains the tendency of public broadcast media to uphold the raison d’être of the nation-state at the same time as embracing change. Woodward’s feature article (which reports on the AHRC-sponsored “Tuning In” project which has researched the BBC World Service) shows how the representation of national and diasporic “voices” from around the world, either in opposition to or in dialogue with the BBC’s own reporting, is key to the way in which the Commission has changed and modernised in recent times; however, she is also clear that many of the objectives that defined the service in its early days—such as its commitment to a distinctly “English” brand of education—still remain. Similarly, Brown & Rutherford’s article on the innovative Australian ABC children’s television series, My Place (which has combined traditional broadcasting with online, interactive websites) may be seen to be positively promoting the Australian nation by making visible its commitment to multiculturalism. Both articles nevertheless reveal the extent to which these public service broadcasters have recognised the need to respond to their nations’ changing demographics and, in particular, the fact that “diaspora” is a concept that refers not only to their English and Australian audiences abroad but also to their now manifestly multicultural audiences at home. When it comes to commercial satellite television, however, the relationship between broadcasting and national and global politics is rather harder to pin down. Subramanian exposes a complex interplay of national and global interests through her analysis of the Malayalee “reality television” series, Idea Star Singer. Exported globally to the Indian diaspora, the show is shamelessly exploitative in the way in which it combines residual and emergent ideologies (i.e. nostalgia for a traditional Keralayan way of life vs aspirational “western lifestyles”) in pursuit of its (massive) audience ratings. Further, while the ISS series is ostensibly a g/local phenomenon (the export of Kerala to the rest of the world rather than “India” per se), Subramanian passionately laments all the progressive national initiatives (most notably, the campaign for “women’s rights”) that the show is happy to ignore: an illustration of one of the negative consequences of globalisation predicted by Beck (31) noted at the start of this editorial. Harb, meanwhile, reflects upon a rather different set of political concerns with regards to commercial satellite broadcasting in her account of the role of Al-Jazeera and Al Arabiya in the recent (2011) Arab revolutions. Despite Al-Jazeera’s reputation for “two-sided” news coverage, recent events have exposed its complicity with the Qatari government; further, the uprisings have revealed the speed with which social media—in particular Facebook and Twitter—are replacing broadcast media. It is now possible for “the people” to bypass both governments and news corporations (public and private) in relaying the news. Taken together, then, what our articles would seem to indicate is that, while the power of the nation-state has notionally been transcended via a range of new networking practices, this has yet to undermine its material power in any guaranteed way (witness recent counter-insurgencies in Libya, Bahrain, and Syria).True, the Internet may be used to facilitate transnational “actions” against the nation-state (individual or collective) through a variety of non-violent or violent actions, but nation-states around the world, and especially in Western Europe, are currently wielding immense power over their subjects through aggressive “austerity measures” which have the capacity to severely compromise the freedom and agency of the citizens concerned through widespread unemployment and cuts in social welfare provision. This said, several of our articles provide evidence that Appadurai’s more utopian prognoses are also taking shape. Alongside the troubling possibility that globalisation, and the technologies that support it, is effectively eroding “difference” (be this national or individual), there are the ever-increasing (and widely reported) instances of how digital technology is actively supporting local communities and actions around the world in ways that bypass the state. These range from the relatively modest collective action, “My Estonia”, featured in Pikner’s article, to the ways in which the Libyan diaspora in Manchester have made use of social media to publicise and support public protests in Tripoli (Harb). In other words, there is compelling material evidence that the heterogeneity that Appadurai predicted and hoped for has come to pass through the people’s active participation in (and partial ownership of) media practices. Citizens are now able to “interfere” in the representation of their lives as never before and, through the digital revolution, communicate with one another in ways that circumvent state-controlled broadcasting. We are therefore pleased to present the articles that follow as a lively, interdisciplinary and international “state-of-the-art” commentary on how the ongoing revolution in media and communication is responding to, and bringing into being, the processes and practices of globalisation predicted by Appadurai, Beck, Bauman, and others in the 1990s. The articles also speak to the changing nature of the world’s “diasporas” during this fifteen year time frame (1996-2011) and, we trust, will activate further debate (following Cohen) on the conceptual tensions that now manifestly exist between “virtual” and “material” diasporas and also between the “transnational” diasporas whose objective is to transcend the nation-state altogether and those that deploy social media for specifically local or national/ist ends. Acknowledgements With thanks to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) for their generous funding of the “Moving Manchester” project (2006-10). Special thanks to Dr Kate Horsley (Lancaster University) for her invaluable assistance as ‘Web Editor’ in the production of this special issue (we could not have managed without you!) and also to Gail Ferguson (our copy-editor) for her expertise in the preparation of the final typescript. References Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation. 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