TV as a means of reconciliation : From Franco-German history to European news broadcasts on ARTE

Résumé 0

The European television channel ARTE was designed in the early 1990s to foster the political process of European construction and reconcile erstwhile enemies. The objective of reconciliation was first implemented through a French and German language program called “Histoire parallèle” (“Parallel History”), which would, in the following decade, be replaced with a European-oriented news program, “Zoom Europa.” This change signaled a shift from a bilateral, backward-looking perspective on history to a European one focused on current events. However, “Zoom Europa,” designed as a “showcase of institutional Europe,” was caught between two contradictory demands: the Europeanization of information and strong local traditions for news broadcasts. The program was pulled three years after its launch. This case study empirically illustrates the difficulty of creating a “European information space.”