Cultural Specificity in Transnational Television Drama: Welsh and German High-End TV

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Elke Weissmann (Edge Hill University, UK)

Cultural Specificity in Transnational Television Drama

Welsh and German High-End TV

Elke Weissmann (Edge Hill University, UK)

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English

Routledge
08 August 2025

Film, TV & Radio; Television; Social & cultural history; TV & society; Media, information & communication industries

Series: Routledge Advances in Television Studies

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.

By: Elke Weissmann (Edge Hill University UK)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781032827285
ISBN 10: 1032827289
Series: Routledge Advances in Television Studies
Pages: 154
Publication Date: 08 August 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Elke Weissmann is Reader in Television and Film at Edge Hill University, UK. She leads the Television Studies Research Group there and is ECREA editor for Critical Studies in Television. She has published widely on television, and her research has been funded by the British Academy for whom she also peer reviews.

Reviews for Cultural Specificity in Transnational Television Drama: Welsh and German High-End TV

""Elke Weissmann makes a compelling argument against sweeping statements of change by drawing attention to how recent developments in ‘high-end’, transnational TV production are met by existing national structures and conditions. Through comparative analysis of two nuanced case studies, she beautifully illuminates how cultural specificities influence German and Welsh screen production, narratives and aesthetics. The nation must remain a conceptual focus, she rightfully reminds us, even in theorizations of the transnationalization of TV production and distribution."" -- Andrea Esser, King's College London, UK