Where culture brings people together. Does ARTE create European television without national boarders? E-Book

Ursula Fudge

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Essay aus dem Jahr 2014 im Fachbereich Medien / Kommunikation - Film und Fernsehen, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The television channel Arte was recently celebrating its 20th anniversary, still continuing to pursue their original plan of creating a channel where borders don't have to set limits and where national consciousness can open towards another cultures, overcoming their differences, focusing more on understanding and unification rather than underlining the impossibilities of connecting two different countries. From its beginnings Arte had a clearly defined focus and purpose. It concentrated on creating programs with a high quality content that would appeal and be understood by both French and Germans, measured with the same level of identification values. "Creating a television channel for two audiences was a first in television’s history and is still an exception in the global TV market to this date" (Arte, 2008). It also had in mind to introduce a new won consciousness that originated from the establishment of EU and that is a status of a "European citizen", thriving to identify not only with its own country but also with Europe as a unit. Underlying all those attributes Arte wished to connote three stages of viewing patterns: national, cross-national and European. In regard of this aspects, this essay tries to find an answer to the question if Arte is able to create European television without national boarders.

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Does ARTE, as a Franco-German coalition, manage to create European television without national boarders ‘where culture brings people together'?

The television channel Arte was recently celebrating its 20th anniversary, still continuing to pursue their original plan of creating a channel where borders don't have to set limits and where national consciousness can open towards another cultures, overcoming their differences, focusing more on understanding and unification rather than underlining the impossibilities of connecting two different countries.

From its beginnings Arte had a clearly defined focus and purpose. It concentrated on creating programs with a high quality content that would appeal and be understood by both French and Germans, measured with the same level of identification values. "Creating a television channel for two audiences was a first in television’s history and is still an exception in the global TV market to this date" (Arte, 2008). It also had in mind to introduce a new won consciousness that originated from the establishment of EU and that is a status of a "European citizen", thriving to identify not only with its own country but also with Europe as a unit. Underlying all those attributes Arte wished to connote three stages of viewing patterns: national, cross-national and European.

Culture is Arte's main domain, as culture in Arte's point of view "brings people together" (Arte, 2008) and spread intercultural communication. Arte's "mission is to provide cultural programming that promotes unity and understanding among European nations" (Arte, 2008). Indeed Arte's programming content truly focuses on past, present and also future culture, embracing not only established artists, performances or cinematography but actively taking part in showcasing new talents. Yet Arte also includes documentaries about foreign countries, news and discussions around European and global affairs, adapting and pointing out current social challenges. This way their definition of culture extends to wide field of many definitions, taking into consideration more than "art" per se.

In order to see if Arte as a Franco-German coalition managed to create a television without borders and is still successful in creating a cross-cultural televisual experience, it is important to understand how Arte established itself, its internal structure, aims and difficulties, that I would like to exemplify with one of their programs; "Karambolage".

Arte's pre-birth began with the establishment of the television channel La Sept in 1986 in France, with an aim to widen the cultural awareness and serve as an alternative to commercial programming. Arte started to air from 1992 in both countries, Germany and France. "The challenge, at first, was a political one –as can be deduced from the fact that the reason for creating Arte was a political one, too. The interstate treaty of 1990 expressed the objectives of the new channel: It was founded in an endeavor to tighten the relationship and the closeness between the peoples of Europe, offering them a common TV program, which would serve as a portrayal of the cultural heritage and of the artistic life in the various states, the regions and the peoples of Europe and the world" (Rothenberger, p. 6). The German chancellor Helmut Kohl and French president François Mitterrand were apparently the initiators, yet in reality France's Minister of Culture Jack Lang and the Baden-Württemberg minister-president Lothar Späth were responsible for the emerging of Arte. "...the Franco-German cultural television channel ARTE jointly funded by the two governments, is a new example of transnational cooperation in European television management" (Kuhn, 2006, p. 210). The structure of Arte's channel was from its beginnings very strictly implemented with the emphasis on equal fairness when it came to the programming and input of both countries France and Germany.