In the Presence of English Media and European Youth

The starting point for this comparative study on the role of English within the media worlds of European youth is recognition of the increasing importance of communication with peoples from other cultures and countries. The international and largely global dimension of ecological, economic, and political questions, development toward a European Union, and the increase in multicultural societies within individual countries require that people have knowledge and understanding of one another and a means of enabling this mutual understanding. Within the European Union (EU) English has a special role in this regard. While EU policy promotes all languages spoken in member states, and although English is not the most frequently spoken first language, it is the language two Europeans are most likely to use to make themselves understood. This occurs not only in the fields of science and technology. Expanding accessibility to and use of the Internet is one example of the extension of opportunities for inter cultural communication beyond the borders of Europe. The media, which play an important role in inter cultural communication, serve as cultural forums and thereby both create culture and transmit representations of other cultures. Their offerings are often highly internationalized, especially in pop culture, films, TV series, and variety shows and bear on cultural and linguistic issues in the multilingual, multicultural EU.