Original scientific paper
Digital Television in Croatia: Is Television Becoming a New Media?
Viktorija Car
orcid.org/0000-0003-2799-8926
; Faculty of Political Science University of Zagreb
Abstract
We live in a multimedia world and media convergence is our everyday reality.
Technological improvements cause important transformations in society and
the economy, and the media are the first to be changed. Digitisation transforms
the media, especially television, into new media with numerous possibilities
for new products and services. The main characteristic of this process
in Croatia is the fact that implementation precedes development strategies or
plans. Furthermore, the lack of public discussion enables these processes to
remain far away from citizens who do not understand them or are not motivated
to understand them. The proliferation of new digital channels (terrestrial,
cable, satellite or broadband) as well as fragmentation of the mass audience
make this process even more complex. Technological improvements have
produced a new multimedia environment breaking down the traditional
boundaries between telecommunications, computers and the audiovisual industries.
As in many countries in the region, the public service television in Croatia is
faced with a program identity crisis and at the same time is fighting for stable
financing. Regarding the process of general digitization and media convergence,
we must ask if it is possible to predict the future of the ‘old media’, especially
of television, which is still the most influential. If it wants to survive,
public service television has to reorganize and redefine itself as a converged,
multimedia public service.
Keywords
television; digital television in Croatia; DTV; digital platforms; public service; multimedia; interactivity; convergence; Internet
Hrčak ID:
25568
URI
Publication date:
10.12.2007.
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