EventA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZW1980s the number of cross-border TV channels
has risen to more than a hundred, some eighty
of these holding a licence from the UK Indepen-
dent Television Commission (ITC, replaced by
ofcom in 2003), whose licences are cheap and
easy to obtain, the prime criterion being that
such stations are based in the UK.
Th e expansion of cross-border transmission
was made possible, and encouraged by, three
key factors: (1) deregulation, which occurred
through Europe (and elsewhere) during the
1980s and 1990s; (2) the European Commu-
nity’s Television Without Frontiers directive
(see above), Article 2 of which prevents member
states barring broadcasting emanating from
other member states; and (3) the possibilities
brought about by satellite transmission.
See localization.
Event Th e occurrence which gives rise to media
coverage will have fulfi lled one or more or an
amalgam of news values. In the analysis of
media, diff erent forms of event can be identifi ed.
Primarily there is the key event triggering media
and subsequently public attention. Such an event
may, as in terrorist attacks in one country or city,
trigger a worldwide sense of crisis.
In ‘Th e impact of key events on the presen-
tation of reality’ in the European Journal of
Communication, September 1995, Hans Mathias
Kepplinger and Johanna Habermeier refer to
events that are key, similar and thematically
related. These can be seen as genuine (inde-
pendent of the media), mediated (infl uenced by
media) and/or staged (for the media).
Media coverage of events, especially if these
give ground for concern about causes and
consequences, stimulates the ‘activities of pres-
sure groups who see an opportunity of gaining
media attention, since their concerns fit in
with the established topic. Th e consequence is
an increased number of mediated and staged
events’.
Equally, such coverage tends to exert ‘pres-
sure upon decision-makers in politics, busi-
ness, administration, etc.’. Th e authors give the
example of how safety-rules for petrol tankers
may be changed as a result of media conjecture
about possible, rather than actual, accidents.
Coverage of key events will, say Kepplinger and
Habermeier, enhance the coverage of similar or
related events, and add interest and urgency to
events thematically linked.
Of course the nature of coverage will vary
between media, for example between daily and
weekly newspapers or between broadsheets and
tabloids. The authors note a tendency in theitems’ are preferred to ‘cheap goods’. In business,
people are not ‘sacked’ but ‘the labour force is
slimmed’ or ‘downsized’.
Some euphemism is justifiable in inter-
personal communication, for example at
times of grief and tragedy; some is insulting to
language and to human intelligence and dignity,
such as the terminology of armed confl ict where
‘demographic targeting’ means the destruction
of cities in situations of war, ‘support structure’ is
civilians, ‘collateral damage’ is dead civilians and
an ‘intelligence producing facility’ is a torture
chamber.
In their chapter ‘Doublespeak’ in Weapons
of Mass Deception: Th e Uses of Propaganda in
Bush’s War on Iraq (Tarcher/Penguin; Constable
and Robinson, 2003), Sheldon Rampton and
John Stauber cite ‘shaping the security environ-
ment’ as polite language for controlling people at
gunpoint, while ‘critical regions’ is doublespeak
for ‘countries we want to control’.
Euronet A consortium of national computer
interests in a number of European countries,
working towards the creation of a mutually
compatible interconnection of European data-
bases. Euronet is designed for reasons as much
political as economical, as a method of ensuring
that in the long term the economic control of
Europe remains in European hands, and thus,
inextricably, the control of information.
European Community and media: ‘Televi-
sion without frontiers’ Title of a Council
of Europe directive, October 1989, the first
attempt by the European Community to regulate
and institutionalize broadcasting between
member states; revised in 1997. Th e directive
requires EC members to guarantee unrestricted
reception for audiences across Europe and to
avoid any strategies likely to limit retransmis-
sion in their territory of any EC broadcasts that
meet Community conditions. Th e directive lays
down a policy of minimum regulation, granting
equal rights to commercial operators and public
service broadcasters while at the same time
requiring no legal obligations to enhance public
discourse.
Facing the TWF initiative in 2005 was the
monumental task of legislating for the vast
increase in internet and mobile phone traf-
fi c. Pressure for further deregulation came
from major corporations such as Time Warner,
News International, Bertelsmann and Microsoft,
lobbying under the umbrella of the International
Communications Round Table (ICRT). See
fairness doctrine (usa); privatization.
Europe: cross-border TV channels Since the