How could the media be evolving if Europe’s broadcast companies are adapting popular American television programs and game shows?

François Heinderyckx, professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles in the Department of information and communication sciences gave a talk today at UBC Institute of European Studies addressing the issue of modeled contemporary programs and how they are creating new trends that are specific to European media.

There’s a lot of familiarity with European programming. TV media takes very little risks and won’t try anything that isn’t successful. There are remakes of Deal or no Deal or Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but even in this new setting, there’s something that stands out from the already tested programs with the North American audience. There’s the local component.

Professor Heinderyckx links this question to one of: What is the core of the European identity? His response is that is it shared and different from each other. You cannot consider media without audience and what makes Europe stand out is the diversity of nations and audience behaviour. Each country has its own traditions, daily press and legal frameworks and that’s why Europe isn’t ready for a global media, instead the market is regional and local. It gives a sense of sharing and belonging together.

After all, media plays on shared experience and if a network or a newspaper can bring the local information to a sizable audience, it gives them a sense of awareness in their own community.

It bottles down to the fundamental approach of consumption of the media. Each region (northern, southern, eastern) or country (Croatia, Sweden, Turkey) consumes media in a different way and in ranging amounts. According to Heinderyckx, the daily television viewing time in Europe is 3 hours and 45 minutes. In the United States that number is 5 hours. But even in Europe, there are differences between each country. In Sweden, that number is only 2 hours and 30 minutes while in Croatia almost 5 hours.

And it’s not only North American media that is struggling to gain trust from the audience. In Europe, the most trusted media is radio with 63%. “The medium without pictures is the most trusted,” said Heinderyckx. Does that mean that the audience is tired of being fed imagery? Is the radio more reassuring that we live in a safer place if we can’t see the visual with the story?

This brings us to the internet and citizen journalism. More people are turning to the internet and even finding information on stories that the corporate media won’t pick up (this includes cell phone photos or videos). Yet, what is happening is that media is going from broadcasting to narrowcasting. It is targeting a very specific audience. After all, isn’t that what the internet does? Online tools allow us to find arguments that will enforce our own beliefs. We are a knowledge society and whether we trust the local TV station or newspaper or the internet, news will be consumed, because as Heinderyckx put it, “The more you know about the other, the more you fear the other.”