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media, cultural policy and the public service media in Europe. The second area of work
focuses on the dichotomy and relation between culture and commerce, and the conflict
in media policy caught between cultural aspirations and commercial imperatives. The
third question deals with the problems of convergence and fragmentation in relation to
the development of media technology on a global and European level. This leads to
questions about the concepts of the information society, the network society etc., and
to a focus on new media such as the internet and multimedia, and the impact of these
new media on society, culture, and our work, education and everyday life. The fourth field
of inquiry is concerned with media and cultural identities and the relationship between
processes of homogenization and diversity. This explores the role of media in everyday
life, questions of gender, ethnicity, lifestyle, social differences, and cultural identities in
relation to both media audiences and media content.

In each of the books arising from this exciting Programme we expect readers to learn
something new, but above all to be provoked into fresh thinking, understanding and
inquiry, about how the media and Europe are both changing in novel, profound, and far
reaching ways that bring us to the heart of research and discussion about society and
culture in the twenty-first century.

Ib Bondebjerg
Peter Golding

6 The Professionalisation of Political Communication