Elke Weissmann – författare

This history of British and American television drama since 1970 charts the increased transnationalisation of the two production systems. From The Forsyte Saga to Roots to Episodes , it highlights the close relationship that drives innovation and quality on both sides of the Atlantic.

Cultural Specificity in Transnational Television Drama examines two European television industries: those of Germany and Wales.This book analyses how near‑global shifts towards the fragmentation of audiences, the convergence of media and the transnationalisation of the television industries impact in culturally specific ways. It shows that these larger developments in the industries intersect with specific local histories and cultures, which influence how the changes are experienced and what kind of stories they lead to. Offering a comparative cultural analysis of these two industries and their output, and drawing on a variety of methods which include interviews, analysis of published interviews in the trade and other press, some archival research and textual analysis, this book shows that the global shifts in television impact in locally specific ways, which implies a continuation and indeed exaggeration of existing cultural differences at the same time as we see increasing collaboration, internationalisation and, as a result, also homogenisation between nations.This book presents a unique emphasis on both transnationalising and localising tendencies, highlighting the need to maintain analytical focus on the nation in this supposedly post‑national world. It will be of particular interest to scholars and researchers in contemporary television landscape, literary and film studies, modern languages, philosophy and economics.

This history of British and American television drama since 1970 charts the increased transnationalisation of the two production systems. From The Forsyte Saga to Roots to Episodes , it highlights the close relationship that drives innovation and quality on both sides of the Atlantic.

This edited collection examines a new phase in the creation of transnational high-end drama in television’s current multiplatform era. Fuelled by the wider international exposure that internet distribution has brought to TV shows, this phase for high-end drama is one of unprecedented budgets and costs, frequent transnational coproduction and increased cultural diversification. While this drama continues to be facilitated by national broadcasters, fuelling the above trio of influences upon it has been the commissioning activity of multinational subscription-video-on-demand (SVoD) providers. This book showcases leading examples of transnational TV drama, produced outside the US, yet involving collaboration with US-owned SVoDs. It foregrounds some new potentials for drama creation in the context of its strategic importance to providers as different as national broadcasters and multinational SVoDs. This book helps to explain why today’s high-end dramas are demonstrating new elements of cultural specificity despite their common objective to engage a diverse international audience.