This article will first of all present a brief literature review on media use and identity construction and integration. This overview will be given in light of two phenomena: The concepts of ‘social quality’ and ‘cultural participation’ and the role played by the media in this on the one hand, and the multicultural composition of Dutch society on the other. The present contribution looks at the four largest ethnic minority groups in the Netherlands: Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese and Antillean youngsters, and (...) adults. The key issue is ‘integration’ with its six dimensions, among which the extent to which ethnic minorities endorse norms and values of Dutch society, and the minorities’ motivation with respect to integration. We also focus on related features, such as religious outlook and linguistic fluency. The measure of participation or integration in Dutch society is related to the use of four kinds of media: Radio, television, print media, and the Internet. The present contribution addresses the following question: To what extent are, on the one hand, bonding or, on the other, bridging predictors of media use among ethnic minorities? We will address the relative importance of these four media in terms of media time and their twofold ‘bridging’ and ‘bonding’ capacities; for each of these media we check the extent to which ethnic minorities favor media from their native country and use applications which focus on their country of origin or their own group. (shrink)

Using telephone interviews among a random sample of 537 Dutch children aged 7–12 years old, we investigated the prevalence of fear reactions to television news among younger and older children and among boys and girls, what types of news items children in different age and gender groups refer to as frightening, and whether children's fear reactions to regular adult television news differed from their fear reactions to a special children's news program. Overall, 48.2 % of the children who reported watching (...) the adult or children's news programs, reported fear reactions to adult news, while 32.6 % reported fear of children's news content. For both types of news programs, younger children and girls more often reported fear than older children and boys did. The most prevalent fear-inducing news content categories were interpersonal violence, fires, accidents, and disasters, and visual depictions of the consequences of violence. (shrink)

This article looks into the way in which public-service as well as commercial TV stations in the Netherlands assume their social responsibility towards a pluralist society. After all, television channels are expected to be ‘mirrors of society’; the key question is then how successful their programs are in conveying a well-balanced representation of all groups in society. By means of a quantitative analysis, the Diversity Monitor charts the presentation of different groups, with a particular focus on gender, age, and ethnicity. (...) Apart from diversity, and as a subcomponent of the Quality Card, the Monitor also reviews innovation as an indicator of program quality. The results reveal a wide diversity of TV programs in the Netherlands, but diversity as such is no guarantee of a balanced presentation of society at large. Due to selection mechanisms on the side of the broadcaster and the public, what the viewer eventually gets is at the most a mirror of his or her own group. (shrink)

This study investigates the negative reactions of Dutch viewers to the content of television programs. The results show that a vast majority is sometimes irritated by TV programs, that a somewhat smaller majority is sometimes shocked by the programs, and that one fifth of the viewing population consider certain programs to be intolerable. The most frequently mentioned genres are games, shows, and related entertainment programs, while reality TV, news and current affairs, and sex are primarily evaluated as irritating. It appears (...) that violent and frightening material creates by far the largest category of negative responses. Intimidating behavior worries the viewers most, immediately followed by the violation of privacy. This article also discusses the consequences of these results for broadcasting policy in the Netherlands. (shrink)