Strategic Regionalization and the Media: Examples from Germany's Regional Public Broadcasts

Felgenhauer T. Strategic regionalization and the media: examples from Germany's regional public broadcasts, <italic>Regional Studies</italic>. The media play a vital role in defining the spatial reality in which we live. Broadcasting stations, television programmes and newspapers transform all topics of interest by placing them within a regional context. In Germany, the federal states' public broadcasting stations exist to provide a regional framework for news and entertainment. Most strikingly, certain television series present narratives of a region's history which override its current territorial shape. This article examines similar television series from three regional public German broadcasting stations focusing respectively on the histories of Mitteldeutschland (Middle-Germany), Bayern (Bavaria) and Brandenburg. Based on the qualitative analysis of data derived from these programmes, it is argued that simulated authenticity linked to a rhetoric of naturalization are crucial elements in policies of 'top-down regionalization'