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Some years ago reception analysis and similar types of qualitative audience research had been welcomed as a new `paradigm' in the whole discussion on media meaning, functions and impact. A crucial case, on which several scholars focused, dealt with the issue of the impact of transnational media, emphasizing the active participation of the receiver in the consumption process. These studies have been reconceptualizing existing theories and arguments in international communication, media imperialism and cultural dominance. Recently the qualitative audience approaches have been labelled as `revisionist', `relativist' and even `postmodernist'. In this article we evaluate the contribution of the approach to the whole debate on the cross-cultural impact by transnational media. The central argument is that the (theoretical) debaters on both sides of the spectrum (defenders and opponents) have not adequately considered (1) the intrinsic information value of the approach and (2) the diversity and ambiguities of the concrete studies themselves.

Television fiction is traditionally seen as the most problematic programme category with respect to dependency on foreign television material. This is especially true for television stations in Third World and small countries in general. Imported, mostly US, fiction plays a prominent role in the total programming schedule and also appears to enjoy popular success. This combination of material dependency and public approval is now a widely discussed topic in cultural debates on the protection of the indigenous identity in many countries and regions. However, very few programme flow studies have been conducted connecting systematically data on the supply and the consumption of (fiction) programmes. This article provides an international comparative study of the import flows and the (quantitative) consumption of fiction in thirteen small European countries and regions (twenty-six stations). It argues that there are noticeable differences in the supply and preferences of the importing countries. Linguistic and cultural proximity is an extremely strong generator of these differences and thus functions as a main protagonist in directing the regional television flows within Western Europe.

Explorations in New Cinema History brings together cutting-edge research by the leading scholars in the field to identify new approaches to writing and understanding the social and cultural history of cinema, focusing on cinema & rsquo;s audiences, the experience of cinema, and the cinema as a site of social and cultural exchange. Includes contributions from Robert Allen, Annette Kuhn, John Sedwick, Mark Jancovich, Peter Sanfield, and Kathryn Fuller-Seeley among othersDevelops the original argument that the social history of cinema-going and of the experience of cinema should take precedence over

Abstract
This article explores contemporary film genre preferences through an in-depth sociological analysis of taste cultures in film preferences amongst youth aged 16–18 in Flanders (the northern Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). Building on a representative sample of 1015 respondents we statistically analyze the assumption that contemporary media audiences demonstrate mobility and that they are eager to shape their media consumption in accordance with their personal preferences. This article examines whether societal structures that have been found to reflect media preferences remain in place, or whether these structures have eroded with the (supposed) increase in individual choice – an argument often voiced in the context of convergence culture. An analysis of the variables gender, educational level and ethnicity illustrates that societal structures are still reflected through film genre preferences amongst Flemish youth.

Cross-national and longitudinal comparative research on the media coverage of EU-related news has gained increasing interest and momentum, but is still rare and generally focuses on the EU as an intergovernmental institution, hence remaining largely ignorant of the particular flows of news in between the member states of the EU. The following analysis provides insight into the media coverage of the Polish EU presidency in the region of Flanders. For this quantitative content analysis, our scope is narrowed to three Flemish media sources. Based on a predetermined set of keywords related to the Polish case and using the newspaper search engine Mediargus, we collected 735 articles for analysis. In conclusion, the analyzed news sample devoted little attention to the Polish EU presidency. News items relevant to Poland's presidency of the EU were concentrated around the presidential inauguration, limited in size, not necessarily political in nature, and favored objective news reporting with absence of a discernible attitude towards Poland.