(Un)covering Poland between PR and presidency. A quantitative content analysis of print news coverage of the Polish EU presidency in Flanders

Cross-national and longitudinal comparative research on the media coverage of EU-related news has gained increasing interest and momentum, but is still rare and generally focuses on the EU as an intergovernmental institution, hence remaining largely ignorant of the particular flows of news in between the member states of the EU. The following analysis provides insight into the media coverage of the Polish EU presidency in the region of Flanders. For this quantitative content analysis, our scope is narrowed to three Flemish media sources. Based on a predetermined set of keywords related to the Polish case and using the newspaper search engine Mediargus, we collected 735 articles for analysis. In conclusion, the analyzed news sample devoted little attention to the Polish EU presidency. News items relevant to Poland’s presidency of the EU were concentrated around the presidential inauguration, limited in size, not necessarily political in nature, and favored objective news reporting with absence of a discernible attitude towards Poland

Film history between culture and economics: admission figures at the Capitole cinema (1953-1971)

Traditionally film studies are focused on the stylistic, narrative and cultural history of cinema. Even with the acknowledgement that the movies were cultural yet commercial artefacts traded on a variety of film markets, contemporary film studies favour a socio-cultural film history as a niche. Our contribution examines local film culture based on the analysis of actual attendance figures from the major first-run cinema of Ghent, the Capitole, between 1953 and 1971. It is a historiographic research on unique archival material captured in a database containing data on 801 films. Based on cultural economics, the analysis explores issues like taste-patterns, financial policy and programming strategies in a pivotal period of crisis in the film market. A first analysis describes the programming strategies of Capitole based on preferences in genre of the films, their country of origin and year of production. A second analysis studies the popularity of the programmed films. Finally, a financial analysis of the data on the ticket prices, gross revenues, taxes, admission numbers and net income characterizes this first run cinema in times of crisis. Capitole was an exclusive first-run cinema with a varied programming strategy thriving on a luxurious image and runaway entertainment. This manuscript which draws upon longitudinal analyses, shows that even though cinema attendance dropped significantly over the course of twenty years this did not correspond with equally plummeting gross income

Cinema with a Capitole C: a cultural economics analysis of the 1953-1971 Capitole ledgers

This paper, which is inspired by recent research trends within the field of film studies, concentrates on the analysis of a unique set of archival material coming from the ledgers of the now defunct movie theatre Capitole in the city of Ghent, Belgium, for the period of 1953 to 1971, a period characterized by the arrival of television and the decline of film attendance. Based on a cultural economic analysis, this paper characterizes Capitole as a first-run cinema with a broadly appealing program, maximizing revenue and attendance. This paper aims to make a contribution to the advancement of cultural economics in film studies by connecting cinema and the sociocultural space through an economic perspective

Crisis at the capitole: a cultural economics analysis of a major first-run cinema in Ghent, 1953-1971

This article examines local film culture based on an analysis of actual attendance and revenue figures from the major first-run cinema of Ghent, the Capitole, between 1953 and 1971. Using unique archival material captured in a database containing information on 801 films, this cultural economic analysis explores issues like financial policy, programming strategies and taste patterns in a pivotal period of crisis in the film market. A first analysis describes the programming strategies of cinema Capitole based on preferences in genre of the films, their country of origin and year of production. A second analysis studies the popularity of these programmed films based on reruns and finally, a financial analysis of the data on the ticket prices, gross revenues, taxes, admission numbers and net income characterizes this cinema in times of crisis

News coverage of the first Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union (2011): Findings from an international comparative study

  This article presents the main findings of an international comparative project on the news coverage of the Polish EU presidency 2011. The study examines the coverage of Poland that for the first time held the leading position in the EU Council within a new institutional context. The findings presented a stem from the analysis of six countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Poland, and Romania, following a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods of content analysis. The results suggest that Poland’s presidency did not change the thematic focus of the news reporting on Poland, neither in other EU countries nor in Poland. The patterns of international and domestic news were not affected significantly by EU-related events but remained shaped by news values of relevance and deviance. In general, Poland was portrayed in a neutral way with rather limited visibility which is related to the then dominant coverage of the Eurozone crisis.  This article presents the main findings of an international comparative project on the news coverage of the Polish EU presidency 2011. The study examines the coverage of Poland that for the first time held the leading position in the EU Council within a new institutional context. The findings presented a stem from the analysis of six countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Poland, and Romania, following a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods of content analysis. The results suggest that Poland’s presidency did not change the thematic focus of the news reporting on Poland, neither in other EU countries nor in Poland. The patterns of international and domestic news were not affected significantly by EU-related events but remained shaped by news values of relevance and deviance. In general, Poland was portrayed in a neutral way with rather limited visibility which is related to the then dominant coverage of the Eurozone crisis

News coverage of the first Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union (2011): findings from an international comparative study

This article presents the main findings of an international comparative project on the news coverage of the Polish EU presidency (2011). The study examines the coverage of Poland that for the first time held the leading position in the EU Council within a new institutional context. The findings presented stem from the analysis of six countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Poland and Romania, following a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods of content analysis. The results suggest that Poland’s presidency did not change the thematic focus of the news reporting on Poland, neither in other EU countries nor in Poland. The patterns of international and domestic news were not affected significantly by EU-related events but remained shaped by news values of relevance and deviance. In general, Poland was portrayed in a neutral way with rather limited visibility which is related to the then dominant coverage of the Eurozone crisis