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What is the future of television in Europe? How well is Europe
represented in the media and in the minds of its citizens? What is
the perspective for freedom of expression in the old and new
members of the European Union? These are some of the questions
which the European Institute for the Media (EIM) analyses as a
think tank for the development of both audiovisual and print media
in Europe. The respective instruments for the work of the EIM are
traditional research, strategy development, and networking.
The Institute was founded at the University of Manchester in 1983. At
that time a mixed group of European academics and broadcasters
decided that it was time to look more closely at the role of the media,
specifically television and film, in relation to the unification of Europe.
Europe had and has a very well-developed pluralistic, mostly national,
media culture, but it is a fact – and a challenge – that there are hardly
any pan-European media, that the national cultures differ immensely,
and that even the bilateral exchange of movies and TV programmes is
not necessarily a priority amongst European broadcasters.
The founding members of the Institute, among them the EIM’s
first Director General, George Wedell, a professor at Manchester
university, regarded a platform for both academic and practical
exchange as crucial for media development in Europe. Without
being partial or associated with one specific country or grouping,
they wanted to promote a Europe which finds the right balance for
the media between diversity and unity. This led in the 1980s to
numerous studies and publications which focused primarily on the
role of public broadcasting, the contribution of the media to a
common public sphere, and the acknowledgement of minority
groups and cultures in Europe and their right to be represented in
the media. Thus, the 1980s can be regarded as the ‘European Culture
Period’ of the Institute. This notion is certainly supported by the
fact that the European Culture Foundation belonged to the founders
and co-financiers of the Institute.
With the collapse of the communist block around 1990 a new period
began also for the Institute. Immediately, there was a high demand
for professional expertise in democratic and free media for the
countries of Middle and Eastern Europe. Both the European
Commission and the OSCE asked the EIM to support them in
promoting and training democracy and freedom of the press in the
newly democratised countries. One of the major roles of the Institute
was monitoring the media in Middle and Eastern Europe during
elections. By the year 2000 we had been present during more than
50 election campaigns and had analysed the degree of freedom
from any government or other influence during the campaigns.
Typically, the EIM would, in close co-operation with academic
and broadcast colleagues from the respective countries, analyse
print and TV reporting a couple of weeks before elections, be it
parliamentary or presidential elections, and test the likelihood that
each running party or candidate would have equal space in the
media and be treated in a neutral and objective way. Among the
countries thus analysed were Russia, the Ukraine, former
Yugoslavia, Romania or Belarus. While it was a sign of increasing
freedom of expression that the EIM analyses were possible at all,
to the present day the findings demonstrate that in many countries
democracy in the media can still not be taken for granted. In Russia
the majority of media are still directly or indirectly controlled by
government, in Belarus journalists who try to express themselves
freely are persecuted and sometimes even killed, in many other
countries indirect forms of political influence are exercised. This
now even includes traditional Western countries like Italy where
the freedom of expression is challenged by a near-monopoly in the
hands of the governing prime minister. Thus, Europe still has some
way to go in finding the right balance between political freedom,
pluralism, and freedom of expression in the media.
Going back to the early 1990s, the EIMmoved to Germany, following
an invitation by the Land North Rhine-Westphalia. The NRW regional
government (Johannes Rau, the current German President, was Prime
Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia
at the time) equipped the Institute
with substantial fundamental funding
and a long-term guarantee, enabling
it to perform independent media
research for the development and
improvement of Europe. Thus, in the
early 1990s new staff was recruited
– mostly academics from up to 15
different countries – and work started
in the new premises in Düsseldorf.
The new Director General was
Bernd-Peter Lange, a university
professor from Osnabrück. Whereas the 1980s were the Institute’s
‘European Culture Period’, the 1990s can be called the ‘Media and
Democracy Period’ of the EIM. Of course, the activities which were
started in Manchester were continued – among others, analyses of
media pluralism and unity in Europe.
However, it became increasingly obvious that besides the traditional
media – television, radio, film and press – new media were
emerging. Most prominently, since the mid-1990s the Internet had
become a communication platform which combined characteristics
of individual communication with those of mass communication.
Therefore it was only logical that towards the end of the 1990s the
Internet and other digital media became a central focus of the
Institute’s activities. In addition to the already existing departments
Media and Democracy
and
Media Policy
a new group within the
Institute was founded, the
Digital World Programme
. This took
place under the third Director General of the EIM, Jo Groebel,
who had been a professor at Utrecht University. Although it may
be too early in the new decennium, the third period of the EIM
(early 21
st
century) could be described as the ‘Digital Europe
Period’. Actual research and activities here include the
World
Internet Project
– a global comparison and analysis of Internet
behaviour and attitudes of media recipients, or the studies on
Mass
Media Content in Mobile Communication
.
years of audiovisual
analysis and strategy
Europe still has some way to go to find a
balance between political freedom, pluralism,
and freedom of expression in the media
The European Institute for the Media has been working for 20 years in Europe’s audiovisual sector.
Professor Jo Groebel
, the Institute’s current Director, explains the EIM’s mission and work.
EIM’s Düsseldorf headquarters
alongside the Gehry Buildings
