Television discourse has undergone significant changes at the end of the 20th century. Technological, economic and political upheavals in the European media have had a direct affect on programme form and meaning. This text is an examination of these newly emerging forms of communication. Detailed case studies taken from a wide range of television genres - such as 24-hours news broadcasting, culture channels (such as ARTE), shopping channels (QVC), talk shows (Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer), local television (Liverpool Live) and European news (EN) - are analyzed and connected to current debates such as: the importance of television's mediations of space and time, such as live coverage across the planet of the OJ Simpson trial; questions of national, local and global identity; the prevalence of trash or quality in television's future developments; the impact of US talk shows within a European context; and how the new satellite channels seek to build familiarity with their terrestrial audience. The text extends debates about the future of a new multichannel media environment which is no longer confined within national boundaries, and how this affects the cultural lives of viewer

Worlds in Common? examines the newly emerging forms of language used in satellite television programmes, exploring a wide range of genres including twenty-four hour news broadcasting, culture channels, talk shows, local TV and European news.
Focusing on the experiences of British and German viewers, the authors discuss these new forms of communication brought about by the technological and economic upheavals in Europe in the late 1990s.
This interaction between media theories and media discourses, makes the book highly relevant for researchers in media and cultural studies as well as linguistics, and provides an important and innovatory link between these different approaches.