New German Critique, No. 78, Special Issue on German
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NEW GERMAN CRITIQUE NUMBER 78 * FALL 1999 G ERMANRMEDAN SRTUIDUES GEISLER AND MATTSON * AFTER THE BARDIC ERA HUMPHREYS * GERMANY'S "DUAL" BROADCASTING SYSTEM HICKETHIER * A CULTURAL BREAK: TELEVISION IN GERMANY GEISLER * WEST GERMAN MEDIA THEORY BOLZ * FAREWELL TO THE GUTENBERG GALAXY ZIELINSKI * FISSURES - DISSONANCES - QUESTIONS - VISIONS SCHUMACHER * GERMAN "B-TELEVISION" PROGRAMS MATTSON * THE GENERATION OF PUBLIC IDENTITY HUHN * LUKACS AND THE ESSAY FORM o 473 > 744., 80557 1 PRICE: U.S. 12.00 /CANADA $15.00 This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:22:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions NEW GERMANCRITIQUE An Interdisciplinary Journal of German Studies Special Editorsfor ThisIssue: MichelleMattson, Michael Geisler Editors:David Bathrick (Ithaca), Miriam Hansen (Chicago), Peter U. Hohendahl (Ithaca),Andreas Huyssen (New York), Biddy Martin (Ithaca), Anson Rabinbach (Princeton),Jack Zipes (Minneapolis). ContributingEditors: Leslie Adelson (Ithaca), Susan Buck-Morss (Ithaca), Geoff Eley(Ann Arbor), Gerd Gemiinden (Hanover), Agnes Heller (New York), Douglas Kellner(Austin), Eberhard Kni6dler-Bunte (Berlin), Sara Lennox (Amherst), Andrei Markovits(Ann Arbor), Eric Rentschler (Cambridge), James Steakley (Madison). ManagingEditor: Michael Richardson (Ithaca). AssistantEditors: Jill Gillespie (Ithaca), Andrew Homan (New York),Franz PeterHugdahl (Ithaca), Kizer Walker (Ithaca). GraphicsEditor: Brendan K. Bathrick(New York). Publishedthree times a yearby TELOS PRESS,431 E. 12thSt., New York,NY 10009.New German Critique No. 78 correspondstoVol. 26,No. 3. C New Ger- manCritique, Inc. 1999.All rightsreserved. New GermanCritique is a non- profit,educational organization supported by the Department of GermanStudies ofCornell University. 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This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:22:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions NEW GERMAN CRITIQUE Number78 Fall 1999 SpecialIssue on: GermanMedia Studies Table ofContents Introduction:After the Bardic Era - GermanTelevision Since 1984................................. ....3 MichaelGeisler and Michelle Mattson Germany's"Dual" Broadcasting System: RecipeFor Pluralism In The Age of Multi-Channel Broadcasting?. 23 PeterHumphreys A CulturalBreak or Perhaps Things Didn't Go ThatFar. Televisionin Germany:Commercialization, GermanUnification and Europeanization.................................53 KnutHickethier FromBuilding Blocks To RadicalConstruction: WestGerman Media Theory Since 1984.....................................75 MichaelGeisler Farewellto the Gutenberg-Galaxy.................................... 109 NorbertBolz Fissures- Dissonances - Questions- Visions........................... 133 SiegfriedZielinski Fromthe True, the Good, the Beautiful to theTruly Beautiful Goods - AudienceIdentification Strategies on German"B-Television" Programs..................................... 152 HeidemarieSchumacher Tatort: The Generationof Public Identity in a GermanCrime Series ...... 161 MichelleMattson Lukicsand the Essay Form.................................. ......183 TomHuhn This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:22:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2 Contributors CONTRIBUTORS NORBERT BOLZ teachesin thedepartment of Designand Art Educationat the University of Essen. MICHAEL GEISLER teachesin theDepartment of Germanat MiddleburyCollege. KNUT HICKETHIER teachesin the Department of Literaturwis- senschaftat the University of Hamburg. TOM HUHN teachesin theDepartment of Philosophyat Wes- leyanUniversity. PETER HUMPHREYS teachesin theDepartment of Economics andSocial Sciencesat the University of Manchester. MICHELLE MATTSON teachesin theDepartment of Foreign Languagesand Literatures atIowa StateUniversity. HEIDEMARIE SCHUMACHER teachesin theDepartment of Theatreand Media Sciences at the Universityof Erlangen- NiUrnberg. SIEGFRIED ZIELINSKI is therector of the Kunsthochschule ffir Medienin Cologne. In theprevious issue of New German Critique on "German-Jew- ish ReligiousThought," biographical information for one of the guesteditors, who was also an author,was mistakenlyomitted fromthe contributor's page. Please note the following: PETER ELI GORDON is a postdoctoralfellow in theSociety of Fellowsat Princeton University. This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:22:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE AMERICANJOURNAL OF SEMIOTICS A QUARTERLYRESEARCH PUBLICATIONOF THE SEMIOTIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA - Recent9ssues RefiguringDebris Semiosis and Cultural Construction Historyand Semiotics Signs in Musical Hermeneutics Trickster:Cultural Boundaries and Semiosis French Semiotics f- 3orthcoming 9ssues - RhetoricalSemiotics Signs of Culture and Communication Semiotics Identities Kenneth Pike: A Sign Chinese Semiotics The Body as Sign Semiotics of the Image Semiotic Pedagogy H----Advertising and yack 9ssues ------ informationis available fromRichard L. Lanigan, Editor, SEMIOTICS, Speech Communication Department, South- ern Illinois University,Carbondale, IL 62901-6605, USA. Tel: (618) 453-2291 Fax: (618) 453-2812 E-mail: <[email protected]> Subscription [ is by membershipin the SemioticSociety of America. 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KODAT , Saving Private Property: Steven Spielberg's American Dream Works - WILLIAM IAN MILLER Weak Legs - IDITH ZERTAL From the People's Hall to the Wailing Wall: A Study in Memory, Mass Hysteria, and War "Representations counts, quite simply, as the most important interdisciplinary journal in the humanities" -Susan McClary Subscriptions: Individuals $40, Students$28, Institutions$IZo Outside NorthAmerica, add $2o postage TO ORDER, WRITE: Representations Universityof California PressJournals Division 2000 Center Street,Suite 303, Berkeley,CA 94704-1223 or FAX: 510/642-9917 (VISA/MC only) E-mail: [email protected] www.ucpress.edu/journals This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:22:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions diacriticsA Review Criticism of Contemporary Editedby Joan Ramon Resina Cornell University Diacriticsis thepreeminent forum for exchangeamong literary theorists, literary critics,and philosophers.Each issuefeatures articlesin whichcontributors compare and analyzebooks on particulartheoretical worksand developtheir own positionson thetheses, methods, and theoretical implicationsof thoseworks. Published quarterlyin March,June, September, and December. Publishedby The Johns Hopkins 9 University Press Annual Subscriptions: $28.00 individuals, $82.00 institutions. Foreign Postage: $8.00, Canada & Mexico; $9.30 outsideNorth America. Send orders with payment to: The JohnsHopkins University Press P.O. Box 19966,Baltimore Maryland21211-0966, U.S.A. MD residentsadd 5% tax.Orders shipped to Canada add 7% GST (GST #124004946RT.) To place an order using Visa or MasterCard,call toll-free 1-800-548-1784, fax: (410) 516-6968, or email address: [email protected] http://www.press.jhu.edu/press/journals/dia/dia.html tX2K This content downloaded on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:22:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Introduction:After the Bardic Era - German TelevisionSince 1984 MichaelGeisler and Michelle Mattson Only 18 yearsago, in 1981,British media critics Richard Collins and VincentPorter wrote in theirmonograph on the WDR Arbeiterfilm: "West Germanbroadcasting has a plausibleclaim to being the most successfulinstance of publicservice broadcasting in theworld."' Even then,this statementwould probablyhave raiseda few eyebrowsnot only among Americantelevision executives, but among American media criticsas well. Yet, at the time,it was defensibleas a critical position.Politically, socially, and aesthetically,German television, in what,to historicizea famousterm coined by JohnFiske and JohnHart- ley, could be called its "BardicEra"2 was withouta doubtamong the mostlively and innovativebroadcasting structures in theworld.3 If the 1. RichardCollins and VincentPorter, WDR and theArbeiterfilm: Fassbinder, Ziewerand Others(London: British Film Institute, 1981)