National Identity and Europe: The Television Revolution

Based on papers given at the 4th International Television Studies Conference, this text examines the role television plays in a changing Europe. It concentrates on how collective identities are defined and changed, whilst examining the use of TV among ethnic communities in Europe – the response to “Neighbours” by youth in Southall, mass defiance in Romania marked by the erection of TV aerials, and a successful Welsh-language soap opera. A key essay in the collection looks at the role of television in the collapsing Soviet bloc. Satellite and other forms of pan-European broadcasting and the effects of recent legislation concerning the traded image on the growing European commmunity are highlighted.