The European Culture Apparatus: The Stream of Refugees, The Flood of Images

Among the world’s globalists projects, the EU is the only one to actively strive for economic, political and cultural union. And yet, in the study of the EU, cultural union is rarely considered. Of the three tasks, cultural unification not only defines the uniqueness of the European project but has actually been most crucial in compelling that project forward. Rachael Craufurd Smith has noted that while “cultural issues can be seen to permeate all aspects of European Union law” yet there is a diversity, even “uncertainty” as to “the meaning of the term ‘culture’ itself.” In this presentation, I want to investigate European cultural unification by focusing on its media apparatus. The Television Without Frontiers Directive was a significant step toward liberalizing media production in Europe. Yet what kinds of cultural unification have resulted? I will seek to answer this question in light of the techniques by which the global movement of people, notably as refugees and migrants, appear as “crises” of a specific type. By extension, I will discuss how the emergence of anti-democratic, authoritarian media is connected to recent transformations in media apparatus; and how alternative visual strategies are emerging in response.