Watching: Cultures of European Television Viewing

Watching television lies at the borderline between the private space of the viewer, the public domain of the nation and television industries and the platform of viewing media. It constitutes a unifying and integrative act as it not only connects viewers to the larger television industry itself but it connects them to one another at moments of shared viewing and integrates them within larger social units. It bridges the private realm of the individual to the public domain of the nation and the state and, subject to institutionalized forms of programme exchange and transmission, the television viewer can become part of a larger European community – with television promoting both shared European experiences and collective memories.

Viewing Cultures

Despite early experimentation in transmitting programmes to public spaces, the home has been the natural habitat of television viewing. Depending on the country, the early efforts of domesticating the television set within the living room fell into the hands of different national actors. In the former communist Eastern Europe these were predominantly political actors, whereas in Western Europe technological manufacturers played a major role, as with the case of Phillips in the Netherlands. See Technology and Institutions.

Deeply embedded into the family structure, television viewing offers insights into the social, economic and political dimensions of the household. The television set strengthened the social ties between family members, who shared moments of viewing together. The commoditization of the television set witnessed the spread of television viewing from the living room into the other rooms of the home. The use of more television sets around the domestic space spoke of an economic potential of the household. The maneuvering of the remote control by particular family members reflected the power structure within the family. Upon an increasing mobility of people across spaces and an increasing penetration of television into people’s daily activities, the television set made its way into public spaces. Such changes in the placing of the television set rendered the act of viewing more fragmented, ranging from individual viewing in the bedroom to collective viewing in public places.

 Viewing Technologies

The environment of television viewing has changed upon the development of other media. It could be watched at the more convenient flexibility of the viewer by means of the VCR or the DVD recorder. It could be practiced within the simulation of a cinematic, rather than televisual viewing experience as facilitated by the home theatre system. Television content can nowadays be consumed on computer screens via the internet. Such changes in the viewing technology have integrated the viewer within a multi-media environment, enhancing his or her spatial mobility, flexibility of consumption and decentralizing the practice of television viewing within daily life.

 Audiences as Consumers

As an industry, television has often regarded its viewers as consumers. Data on audiences’ behavior and their viewing rates has been used to indicate the effectiveness of television productions and to expand the capital of television industries, for high audience ratings has implied higher advertising revenues. The use of ratings in competition between services and channels has also often gone hand in hand with the development of commercial television in Europe. The emergence of commercial television and ratings at different in different countries has often signified moments of crisis for state and public service broadcasters with an increased emphasis on viewer choice and control. However, such phenomena require constant historical contextualization: under the former repressive regimes of Eastern Europe, audience viewing behaviors did not necessarily account for the grandeur and dominance of certain television productions. Within such contexts, the relation between audiences and the television industry was often a one-way process: suggestions or complaints by the viewers did not influence the provision of television programming, while the industry, under political pressures, manipulated and censored television content.

 Audiences as Citizens

Social ties are inherent to the practice of television watching. Television’s mediation between the viewer and the public arena plays an important role in constructing the individual’s sense of belonging to the nation. By keeping viewers informed on public affairs, by making them part of the nation’s public life and by providing models of public behavior, television transforms its audiences into citizens. The relations between viewers and the nation become particularly evident during times of national insecurity, political change, international confrontations or competitions. Mostly at such times, television reasserts the audiences’ sense of national belonging. The 1989 Live Romanian Revolution showed how television played the major role in mobilizing the people’s national revolt.

Transnational Communities

Programme exchange between European countries and the broadcasting of news and live events has provided viewers with both different visions of Europe and moments of shared experience. The Eurovision Song Contest, the televising of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the images of the 2004 and 2005 terrorist attacks in Madrid and London do not just constitute shared experiences for audiences but also contribute to a sense of collective memory. See Programmes and Events.

While language and regional culture in television programming contribute to the shaping of local communities, the collective viewing of international broadcasts often transcends the sense of local belonging and constructs global communities. This becomes even more complex when television joins together different transient, migratory or diasporic communities. Fandom is yet another type of community built on common interests in international television programmes or stars, a community able to transcend national borders and unite individuals of different national and cultural backgrounds to the same televisual texts.

 Dana Mustata

University of Utrecht