ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the multiple connections between television and issues of identity, focusing on the interplay between the global and the local, and arguing that television remains strongly anchored in local and national contexts. Television continues to contribute to the discursive construction of cultural and national identities, capitalizing upon audience preferences and affinities while also reconfirming them. These insights are elaborated through the case of television drama, which is discussed in general as well as through the particular context of a small European region, Flanders (Belgium). While Flemish drama productions are influenced by global examples, they deliberately look for local topics and approaches, “domesticating” genres and formats by capitalizing on pre-existing ideas of “Flemishness”. Not only does national identity remain important, it also impacts the representation and construction of other identities. This chapter discusses two identities, ethnic and sexual ones, arguing that the representation of ethnic and sexual minorities is strongly inflected by national and cultural contexts. Hence, rather than generalizing accounts we need localized understandings of television in particular contexts.
