FROM CULTURAL DEFENSE TO POLITICAL-CULTURE - MEDIA, POLITICS AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY IN THE EUROPEAN-UNION

This paper takes recent EU policy concerning audiovisual media as its initial point of focus, placing it in the context both of the market n egotiations of the GATT talks and the various notions of 'European cul tural identity' to be found in official EU statements and documents. E xploring a number of slippages and tensions, it maps the shifting grou nd of media and cultural policy in the mid-1990s, particularly in rela tion to questions of cultural protection, cultural identity and plural ism. Having critically reviewed the current dominance of technological and industrial perspectives and the particular articulation of econom y, culture and polity which follows from this, it makes the case both far placing issues of political culture more firmly on the EU agenda a nd for recognizing the importance of the media in political as well as cultural development.