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September 2007, Week 2

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Subject:
From:
Michele Hilmes <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:27:32 -0500
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Television Under Dictatorships:
>
>
>
> Call for Submissions to an Edited Collection of Academic Articles
>
>
>
> Scholars from various fields have often written about the strategic
> value of media control to repressive regimes, but very little has been
> published concerning the specific television cultures and programmes
> that have developed in such political contexts. In particular, little
> attention has been given to the wide range of programme forms, genres
> and texts that have been broadcast under dictatorships. This lack of
> attention may have perpetuated the view that such television has been
> constituted by a stream of broadcasts of military parades, personality
> cults and propagandised 'news' content. Yet television may also have
> included other programmes such as soap opera and serious drama,
> documentary, talk, entertainment, music and sport. Television
> produced under repressive regimes has also been thought of as of low
> quality, with little aesthetic merit, and lacking in intellectual or
> artistic value because it was constrained by tight controls and
> censorship. This too overlooks the diversity and complexity of
> television programming and production.
>
>
>
> We are therefore seeking contributions to an internationally-based and
> historically-focused edited collection that begins to explore a number
> of these television forms and issues. We are interested in
> contributions that address questions that include, but are not
> restricted to, the following:
>
>
>
> * What types of programmes and genres were shown (parades/ personality
> cults/ news/ soaps/ drama/ entertainment/ music etc.)?
> * Was there a distinctive aesthetic/ textual character to the
> television programmes shown? (If there was, how might this be
> attributable to the political context rather than cultural/ national
> variation? What was the relationship between the political context and
> production practices?)
> * What were the cultures of viewing under such regimes? (For example,
> how closely aligned were such programmes to audience tastes and
> interests? To what extent were audiences ambivalent or resistant?
> Could certain programmes be interpreted as subversive?)
> * How much influence did foreign television systems or
> foreign-originated programming have on the character of television?
> * How was television implicated at times when the nation came together
> (state rallies, for example) or fractured apart (revolution, civil
> war, etc.)?
>
> We envisage a series of case studies about television in particular
> states under dictators, military juntas or one-party rule, and
> involving any time-period from the birth of television to the
> mid-1990s. Although we recognize that authors will need to place
> television within a national institutional/ regulatory context, the
> main focus of the book will be on accounts of television content/
> programme texts, aesthetics, production practices and audience
> experience, whether in relation to everyday life, 'media events' or at
> moments of particular crisis. We welcome contributions covering
> television in Europe, the former Soviet bloc, Africa, the Middle East,
> Asia, South America or any other part of the world.
>
>
>
> Interested scholars should e-mail a proposal (250 words approx.),
> together with a biographical note, to Rob Turnock (Royal Holloway,
> University of London, [log in to unmask]) or Peter Goddard
> (University of Liverpool, [log in to unmask]) by 19 November
> 2007. We would normally expect finished articles to be submitted
> within 12 months from when the proposal is approved.
>

Michele Hilmes
Professor, Media and Cultural Studies
Director, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Department of Communication Arts
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
608-262-2543

----
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http://www.ScreenSite.org

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