Vlad Jecan

There are some people who hold passionately on the idea of a European Union media. A single media with original specifics that is available only within the borders of the EU and which is, of course, completely different from anything else. In their narrow perspective, EU media enforcers (maybe militants) ignore the very differences, cultural and economic, that can be found within the same borders.

Simple, pragmatic questions like “do the Brits and Bulgarians have similar interests?” are ignored. If we research the matter a little, we’d find out that the British are more interested in foreign policy than the Bulgarians, the later being more concerned with domestic politics. With a mind on this we can simply ask ourselves: “then how can there be the same media?” There are other examples as well: the British public is generally interested in archaeology, the Romanian news consumers are not; the French prefer print newspapers while the Romanians enjoy TV and online publications. In consequence, the media adapts to each country.

The regulations proposed by the EU are pertinent and most welcomed by journalists. However, they do not create, nor even try to establish a single EU media – this is what researchers and media commentators have to understand. We should celebrate diversity, not ignore it.

I will not discuss the aspects of a so-called “EU media”, instead I will only raise a question which will help us in the upcoming debate. The question is:

Is there a specific media for the European Union? How does it differentiate itself from the “other media”?

At the moment I am skeptic and frankly I do not want to see a European Union-style media completely or partially different from the others. This thought is somehow paradoxical because inside the EU we have a multitude of different views on media – Romanian media differs in style and approach to the media in Britain.

In any case, I will try to further investigate the subject as I believe it to be quite interesting. More posts will follow.