„Widerspruchsvolles Durch- und Gegeneinander“

Mediengeschichte in ländlichen Zwischenräumen – das Beispiel Eupen-Malmedy (1920–1940)

Abstract

The article deals with the question to what extent the concept of the “space in between-space” (Zwischenraum), developed by Philipp Ther, can be used to analyse rural media history. Ther argues that border regions are in the centre of exchange processes and not peripheral regions. As an example, the author of this article analyses the mass-media landscape (press, radio and cinema) of Eupen-Malmedy, a rural region at the Belgian-German border, between 1920 and 1940. The paper examines the role of small cities or towns, the influence of larger media centres on this region and the media production in this region will be analysed. The author argues that several aspects of rural media history need further attention in the future: the heterogeneous structure of rural media landscapes and audiences, the multidimensional influences on media reception in the rural space and the deconstruction of predefined strongly moulded regionalisms. To uncover this, the media resonance and distribution of the above-mentioned media will be studied.