European Broadcasting Research Articles

Public service strategy in digital television: From schedule to content

This paper contrasts the schedule-oriented approach against the content-oriented strategy of public broadcasters. It presents data collected in 1999 and 2000 at the Finnish public broadcasters (YLE) and offers this as a concrete example of the challenges which European public broadcasters face on the way to digital convergence.

National Digital Preservation Initiatives: An Overview of Developments in Australia, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom and of Related International Activity Commissioned for and sponsored by the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, Library of Congress

Neil Beagrie's report gives an overview of some key international developments in digital preservation, selected because of their potential relevance to the U. S. National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. The study focuses on major programs in four countries – Australia, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom – and systematically describes each program's national context, institutional and national initiatives, international initiatives and planned/future international activities. It also describes some key multinational initiatives such as the Open Archival Information System and Preservation Technology for European Broadcast Archives.

Discourses on Communication Technologies in Canadian and European Broadcasting Policy Debates

There have been growing similarities between broadcasting issues in Canada and Europe. Some issues, including the emergence of private broadcasting and concerns about American broadcasting, became prominent in Europe decades after they were evident in Canada. In both contexts, historical and contemporary debates about broadcasting issues have been tied to three discourses on communication technologies. This article contends that broadcasting policy debates in Canada and Europe can usefully be interpreted through a theoretical model that addresses technological determinism, technological democracy and technological nationalism. The model places the discourses in the context of struggles between dominant agents (private companies, governments or supranational institutions) and subordinate agents (including various social movements). The model shows how connections between the discourses help to secure the hegemony of powerful groups. However, the model also identifies contradictions within the discourses and compromises involving the discourses. Both are associated with opposition from less powerful groups.

Optimal and acceptable color ranges of display primaries for mobile applications

Abstract— For many new display types, especially for mobile applications, the chromaticity coordinates of the primaries differ from those recommended by the EBU (European Broadcast Union). In order to identify optimal and acceptable ranges in which these primary colors may vary two studies were conducted: one related to the hue of the primaries [also reported in an earlier paper (Ref. 4)] and one related to their saturation. In the first part of the present study, observers set the saturation of one single primary (red, green, or blue) separately or of all three primaries simultaneously, to an optimum, for seven different (natural) images. In the second part, the same observers decreased the saturation until they perceived the image as “just acceptable” (defined as “having natural colors, given its content”). Both parts were conducted on an LCD monitor and repeated later with a different group of subjects on a CRT monitor. In this paper, the results of the current study are reported and they are combined with the results of the previous one. The results of the experiments show that for optimal image quality the saturation of the red and green primaries of a display must be at least 90% with respect to the EBU standard. For the blue primary it can be somewhat lower (at least about 70%). In the acceptance task, observers were the least tolerant in accepting a saturation reduction of the red primary (70%) and the green primary (60%) and they were almost twice as tolerant for the blue primary (35%). Ellipses were fitted to the results of the hue and saturation studies in 1976 CIE (u'v')color space such that display manufacturers can easily test whether the color reproduction of their displays is optimal, acceptable, or unacceptable with respect to reproducing natural colors.

Auditing Public Broadcasting Performance: Its Theory and Practice

In most West European countries public service broadcasting (PSB) is in a state of flux, if not in crisis. Across the board, organisations are loosing their audience, particularly among the younger viewers, they are confronted with a critical and sometimes hostile political environment, and the self-evidence of their financial support or even their raison d’ etre is put into question, not least by their competitors. In short: they are often fighting for support and struggling to survive. What’s been going on here in the last ten, twenty years that merits such lamentation and is prompting a discussion about its mission and responsibilities? Do PSBs still deserve their preferential treatment in the broadcasting market, what responsibilities does that then entail, and how are they held to account for their “public” performance? A short overview is an introduction to a special issue on the theoretical grounding of, and empirical experiences with, auditing public broadcasting performance.

International Journalism Education at the End of History, Starting in Albania

The context of international journalism education has changed now at the end of history, Francis Fukuyama's catchy hyperbole for the global triumph of capitalism and democracy.1 The venerable - and these days, 1956 does qualify as venerable - categorization of four press theories (communist, authoritarian, libertarian, responsibility) by Siebert, Peterson and Schramm2 has receded toward irrelevance. If you buy into Fukuyama's analysis, capitalism and democracy provide not just the most viable, but the inevitable, direction fo national and global evolution. That means that of the press theories identified by Siebert et al., the only ones worth thinking about are the libertarian and the social responsibility, which are variations on a single theme: a free press in a capitalist, democratic context. After the Berlin Wall fell, the United States and other Western countries sent trainers imbued with the values, as well as the techniques, of Western-style journalism charging into the former Soviet bloc to show the now discredited journalists there how it's done. In 1990, a Gannett Foundation report provided a selective inventory of organizations besides itself that had sent aid to media in Central and Eastern Europe. These included the U.S. Information Agency, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Voice of America, Charter 77, the German Marshall Fund, the International Federation of Newspaper Publishers, the Soros Foundation, Reuters, Internews, the Myers Foundation of Australia, UNESCO, Trans-Atlantic Dialogue on European Broadcasting, the Center for War, Peace, and the News Media, and others.3 That list could be expanded to include the U.S. Agency for International Development, the BBC, the European Journalism Centre, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, just to name a few. The dominant Western approach to journalism training has emerged triumphant, while earlier efforts in some official venues, particularly UNESCO in the 1970s and 1980s, to come up with an alternative-- journalism-for the Third World have come to naught. The debate over the so-called New World Information and Communication Order had been oversimplified in the West as a confrontation between advocates of a free press and a governmentcontrolled press. Even recent treatments of journalism cast it primarily as a tool of totalitarian regimes,4 which, in its implementation, it clearly was. For the most part, journalism was either a prop for authoritarian governments or utterly ineffectual wherever it was tried. Unfortunately, efforts to conceptualize a more directed system of to promote economic and political evolution in the Third World as an alternative to the objective, but more fragmented and sensational, approach of Western news agencies also foundered. Agencies such as UPI, AP and Reuters had been widely viewed in the developing world not only as instruments of Western hegemony, but as purveyors of froth and violence, information of no use in the daunting task of nation-building. But, by 1990, the NWICO and development news were rendered moribund in the wake of disintegrating European Communism and the increasing marginalization of great portions of the Third World, particularly in Africa. News agencies formed in the Third World and nonaligned countries as purveyors of had failed, mainly, in the view of their critics, because participating countries supplied stories perceived elsewhere as propaganda.5 Support melted away. That left the dominant Western journalistic paradigm, which had evolved out of a capitalist economic system working within a free political environment, as the last man standing. The Western journalistic Paradigm The summary word for describing the dominant paradigm of Western journalism is objectivity, the notion that the presentation of facts about the world should be as value-free as possible. …

"European Original Fiction": A National Resource and Different Ways of Self-Representation

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.

30.2: Optimal and Acceptable Hue Ranges for Display Primaries

AbstractFor many new displays types (e.g. LCDs, PolyLEDs) the hues of the primaries differ from those of conventional CRTs. In order to identify an optimal and an acceptable range in which these primary hues may vary the following two experiments were performed. In the first experiment observers set the hue (ΔHuv, color rotation about the white point) of either the red, green or blue primary to an optimum for four different (natural) images. In the second experiment the same observers adjusted the hue of each primary separately until they perceived the image as “just acceptable”. The results suggest that the optimal hue of the chromaticities of the red, green and blue primaries may vary about ±4° from the chromaticities set by the EBU (European Broadcast Union). In the acceptance task observers were the least tolerant in accepting a hue variation of the blue primary (±12°) and more tolerant for the green primary (±23°). Results for the red primary were quite asymmetric (+15° for a positive hue and −30° for a negative hue). The results from this study give display manufactures a guideline to test whether the color reproduction of their display is optimal, acceptable or unacceptable.1

The Inflow of American Television Fiction on European Broadcasting Channels Revisited

Empirical research in the 1970s and 1980s revealed the dominant position of American fiction on European television, in consequence of which the term `Dallasification of television content' was launched. By the end of the 1990s the situation had not changed drastically. The results of our programme analysis from 1997, in which the origin of films and series on 36 public and commercial channels from six European countries was traced, confirmed (1) the importance of fiction on European television, (2) the dominant position of American fiction and (3) the limited distribution of European fiction in Europe. This is not self-evident considering the efforts of the European Union since the end of the 1980s to counter these tendencies (quota for European productions, support measures for the audiovisual industry). Our findings also clearly confirm the distinction between public and commercial channels, according to which public channels broadcast a wider range of national, non-national European and American fiction. American series cannot touch the popularity of domestic series, which oust the American series in prime-time on both public and commercial channels. The American movie, however, is predominant also in prime-time. US fiction succeeds in breaking through all cultural barriers in Europe, whereas in the distribution of European fiction, language and cultural proximity continues to play a decisive role.

Digital video broadcasting over satellite (DVB-S): a system for broadcasting and contribution applications

The general system concepts for digital television transmission and broadcasting by satellite, developed within the European digital video broadcasting (DVB) Project and standardized by ETSI are described. The system (EN 300 421) is designed to provide direct-to-home (DTH) multi-programme TV services in the BSS and FSS bands and is addressed to consumer integrated receiver decoders (IRDs), as well as collective antenna systems (SMATV) and cable television head-end stations, with a likelihood of remodulation. The system operational modes have been extended in 1998 (EN 301 210) to cover also ‘contribution’ applications by satellite, such as conveying vision and sound material between TV studios, or from remote locations directly to the broadcaster's premises through light and portable up-link terminal digital satellite news gathering (DSNG). The exploitation of the multiplex flexibility allows the use of the transmission capacity for a variety of TV service configurations. The use of flexible and advanced error protection techniques, based on the concatenation of Reed-Solomon and convolutional codes (with Viterbi decoding), allows optimum adaptation to different satellite transponder characteristics, i.e. bandwidth and power, providing high service quality and availability with small receiving antennas (DTH applications) or transmitting terminals (DSNG applications). Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Do “the media” Exist? Russia and East European Broadcasting and National Identity

Do “the media” Exist? Russia and East European Broadcasting and National Identity

Review essay. Do 'the media' exist? Russia and East European broadcasting and national identity

Review essay. Do 'the media' exist? Russia and East European broadcasting and national identity

Window/Picture: L'assassin menace and Artist Descending a Staircase

It only when imagination dragged away from what eye sees that a picture becomes interesting. Tom Stoppard, Artist Descending a Staircase 39 It a commonplace of Stoppard criticism that Tom Stoppard writes by engaging in what Susan Rusinko neatly dubbed creative (96). With 1972 publication of After Magritte, Stoppard extended his plagiarism from verbal to visual. Critics have pointed out not only conceptual similarities between that play and Rene Magritte's painting but also a visual similarity between opening of play and a specific Magritte painting, L'assassin menace. [1] title of Stoppard's Artist Descending a Staircase rewardingly led critics to examine relationship between that play and Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase. [2] But it also led them away from seeing a much stronger relationship between that play and, once again, L'assassin menace. Artist Descending a Staircase, a play about artists, turns on a particular painting that one of central characters made in 1920 and on love of a blind girl, Sophie, for its creator. Beauchamp, a sound artist in play, might describing Stoppard's project in writing it when he speaks of liberation of the visual from limitations of visual art... to create images--pictures--which are purely mental (36). [3] When play was commissioned by a consortium of European broadcasting companies, Stoppard set himself challenge of writing a play that to be for radio rather than stage (qtd. in Mayne 34). [4] He self-reflexively set blind Sophie in audience's position. The first duty of artist, Beauchamp says, as if commenting on play, is to capture radio (20). In 1990, Elissa S. Guralnick argued that Artist Descending a Staircase not only captured radio station but was perhaps Stoppard's finest play: prejudice against drama for radio had led scholars to see work as minor (286-87). wittiness of Stoppard's response to L'assassin menace manifest in his use of aural medium and in both structure and content of play. As Magritte critic Suzi Gablik observed, L'assassin has all character of one of those psychological games in which one supposed to make up one's own story from image (49). And it would seem that Stoppard done so twice, first in After Magritte and then, in much more detail and more elaborately, in Artist Descending a Staircase. While no scene in Artist Descending a Staircase directly comparable to that in painting, play can understood to tell story of L'assassin. painting at center of Stoppard's play may itself a witty inversion of window at center of Magritte's painting. Magritte, most notably in La condition humaine, calls into question Renaissance concept of painting as a window on reality by setting a painting in front of a window. We assume from continuity of painting with view through window that painting a representation of that view. But because painting largely occludes view, we cannot sure. Indeed, we become aware that all of La condition humaine a painting; there no view through a window. Thus Magritte points out that perception inevitably a function of representation, of human creation. Stoppard's play similarly about entrapment of humans in their representations. characters believe they are seeing reality as if through a window, but what they see their pictures of reality. In play, Stoppard also considers responsibility of artist to attempt to conscientiously repr esent reality. L'assassin highly suggestive of a play in a proscenium theater, one that a playing area at either side in front of proscenium, a main playing area within proscenium, and at rear center, an inner stage--the center rear window. …

A new fast symbol timing recovery algorithm for OFDM systems

The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique has been adopted for the European digital terrestrial broadcasting standard, which is called the digital video broadcasting for terrestrial (DVB-T). In this paper, we propose a new symbol timing recovery algorithm for the (OFDM) system to achieve a fast start-up using the scattered pilots under the frequency offset, the common phase error, and severe noise. With the proposed algorithm, we can detect up to /spl plusmn/35 sample offsets and can recover the sampling timing phase even in the carrier frequency offset of up to /spl plusmn/0.35 OFDM subcarrier space. So, we can much reduce the start-up time by simultaneously operating both the carrier and symbol timing recovery loops.

Development of the German Media Market: Opportunities and Challenges for U.S. Media Firms

Due to technological development and economic pressures, deregulation of the West European broadcasting market during the 1980s has led to an enormous increase in the number of television channels. The opening of the markets to commercial interests and the demand for TV software (programming material) at the same time give media companies diverse opportunities to become active across frontiers. Being the biggest broadcasting and advertising market in Western Europe, Germany has become an interesting target for foreign companies. The introduction of digital television in the summer of 1996 and further liberalization of ownership regulations have made entry into the German broadcasting market even more attractive. This article describes the development of the German TV sector and analyzes opportunities, restrictions, and consequences of international and particularly U.S. activities in the German market.

European public service television and the cultural‐educational logic: A comparative analysis of children's and youth programming

One of the most recurrent themes in studies on European television trends, is that the policies of liberalization and deregulation have caused the industry to follow a more market‐oriented or crass commercial logic. New technologies and policies have led to an explosion in the number of commercial channels; new financial, organizational and programming strategies; increasing pressure from advertising and multinationals; and a decreasing role of the state in production and distribution. This paper looks at how such pressures have affected the policies of European public service broadcasters (PSBs), by concentrating on their traditional commitment to education in an analysis of children's and youth programmes as an index of this change.

Measurements of direction of arrival of HF sky wave signals by means of a wide aperture antenna array and two super resolution direction finding algorithms

From measurements of the amplitude and phase of ionospherically propagated HF radio signals received at several spaced antennas, the direction of arrival of the signals in both azimuth and elevation can be determined. A series of measurements has been undertaken using a wide aperture antenna array on signals received from several European broadcast stations (in the 9-15 MHz range) at distances of up to about 1400 km, and the directions of arrival estimated by means of two super-resolution algorithms; MUSIC and an iterative null steering method (an approximate maximum likelihood estimator) based on the IMP and DOSE algorithms. A detailed comparison of the performance of the two algorithms has been undertaken, and it is concluded that the null steering algorithm is significantly better than MUSIC at resolving the various propagation modes, particularly for short signal analysis periods.

From the Mountains of Visions to the Valleys of Reality: New Legal Frameworks for Broadcasting in Eastern and Central Europe

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.

A research note on European broadcasting culture

Abstract Electronic media in Western Europe are governed by ideals such as administration in the public interest without direct political control, and protection from the incalculable risks of commercial profit. In view of these and related ideals, electronic media in Europe, especially television, is intended to preserve some level of diversity in program content, with the will to engage even in uneconomical productions, within some “free space” reserved for quality programming independent of financial and market considerations. If public service organizations are to realize these ideals of European broadcast culture, it is essential that they benefit from the consensus of society as a whole regarding the use of communication technologies for cultural purposes.

The Imagined Transnational Public Sphere in the European Community's Broadcast Philosophy: Implications for Democracy

This paper argues that emerging policies for transforming diverse configurations of national media into a singular transnational system collide with fundamentally irreconcilable propositions of the meaning and significance of the public interest in the Western democratic tradition. Internal policy contradictions within the EC's notion of `Europeanization' of the media lead to a set of serious implications for the meaning and practice of modern civil society and for the role of communication within it. A transfrontier sector created by the EC has launched a radical trend towards corporatization of broadcasting in Europe, which is in serious opposition to some fundamental principles of the European democratic tradition. Analysis of policy discourse indicates a general trend towards market-oriented reregulation and a retreat from the obligations of broadcast systems to the historical concept of civil society and the status of citizenship constituted within a democratic public sphere.