Review of the Research Institute for History and - Universiteit Utrecht

chronically (Emerging Media) and synchronically (Comparative Media) and the way media shape and are
shaped by various historical and contemporary publics and contexts (Media Cultures). This tradition stands
in sharp contrast to defi nitions of media based solely upon a supposition of their technological, semiotic or
aesthetic specifi city.
The perspective that has characterized media research in Utrecht for the last decade precludes such a
view, trying instead to map out the complex processes shaping the emergence of a medium. Media take form
within a dynamic fi eld of confl icting interests, multiple tensions and intense struggles, and research within
the programme endeavours to address this dynamic rather than reducing media objects to static texts and
technologies. Having already acquired an internationally acknowledged position in the fi elds of early cinema
studies, television history, and research on digital media, and having generated a number of important PhD
projects in this domain, the topic of “emerging media” will continue to be of great interest in Utrecht Media
Research. Research projects include attempts to understand the emergence of a medium, for example, early
cinema, as cultural practice by locating that development against a backdrop of competing media forms,
generic precedents, public perceptions, and regulatory pressures. And they seek to capture and understand
the logics informing the development of the latest generation of ‘new’ media, both seeking parallels to earlier
development patterns, and generating theories that help to account for the perception and use of mediumspecifi
c attributes. This particular group of scholars was responsible for the organization of the international
conference Visible Evidence (2000) en produced several contributions for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Early
Cinema.
The Utrecht Media Research programme has a special interest in comparative media research. In a
general sense, this concern manifests itself in at least three dimensions: historical comparison; thematic comparison;
and inter-medial comparison. In fact, much of the research carried out in this sector combines these
different understandings of comparativity, increasing the analytic value of the ensuing work. These initiatives
share a fundamental concern with media as a constellation of practices, as a dispositif, approaching any particular
medium comparatively across media forms and contextualizing it both historically and environmentally.
Comparative research focuses specifi cally on local forms of amusement, in Rotterdam (dr André van der
Velden), Utrecht (prof. Bert Hogenkamp) and New York (dr Judith Thissen). This innovative local approach
has helped the formation of international networks in local media history.
The central question in the third research area concerns the relationship among media, culture and
society from both historical and theoretical perspectives. This relationship implies a certain dynamic, a movement
manifest in diverse cultural transformation processes in which media play a determining role such as
citizenship, cultural identity, new forms of (popular) representation, entertainment, and cultural participation.
This research area is concerned with the particular role of media in the processes of cultural change and
continuity, in the production circumstances of media texts and the texts themselves, in the reception and
appropriation of media through its publics, and in the debate over the function of media in culture and
society. Thus, for example, one of the “media cultures” research initiatives considers television in Dutch
society, past and present, examining the role of the medium in the construction of identity. Although media
cultures are important for all aspects of this group’s research, it is of central concern for the NWO funded
programme Cinema and Modern Life, in prof. Sonja de Leeuw’s research on ethnicity and cultural identity,
undertaken in the context of the CHICAM-programme (Children in Communication about Migralion),
and for dr Eggo Müller’s work on new televisual forms in relation to entertainment and interactivity, which
has also led to an international workshop on soccer on television, organized in Utrecht in 2004.
A 3. Processes in research, internal and external collaboration
The group has managed to maintain a dynamic research spirit. Eleven PhD students were recruited during
the period under review, including three for the PhD-international programme which again underlines the
international outlook of this particular group. OGC and the Faculty Board have also actively stimulated the
submission of grant applications by the group, a policy that is now beginning to produce results, with grants
being awarded recently for three programmatic projects.
In connection with the NWO project “Cinema, Modern Life and Cultural Identity in the Netherlands” an
application was awarded by NWO in 2003 for the creation of a fi lmhistorical database, created by scholars
99 The Cultural Construction of Media OGC
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