A pilot study done in collaboration with the European (Post)Socialist Television Studies Commission and funded by the FIAT/IFTA Television Studies Commission about digitization and online dissemination and the partly inaccessible television heritage from Eastern Europe.

1. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Counter Screens
A pilot study done in collaboration with the European (Post)Socialist Television
Studies Commission & funded by FIAT/IFTA Television Studies Commission
Dr. Dana Mustata
University of Groningen

2. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
The European (Post)Socialist Television History Network:
› Dana Mustata (University of Groninge) - coordinator
› Aniko Imre (University of Southern California, USA) – researcher
› Ferenc Hammer (ELTE University, HU) – researcher
› Lars Lundgren (Sodertorn University, SE) – researcher
› Sabina Mihelj (Loughborough University, UK) – researcher
› Irena Reifova (Charles University Prague, CZ) - researcher
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3. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Challenge:
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Despite digitization and online dissemination,
television heritage from Eastern Europe remains
partly inaccessible due to issues of language and
lack of context on the specific broadcasting and
archiving cultures this material originates from

4. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Access?
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5. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
For instance:
Accessing the Live Romanian Revolution?

6. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
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7. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Securitate document showing the live broadcast infrastructures under Ceausescu

8. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Securitate document on surveilled audiences

9. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Best Practices to Accessing Television Heritage from Eastern Europe
Aims:
› showcase practices of contextualizing television
programmes from several Eastern European archives;
› illustrate and discuss sources that contextualize and enrich
archived television programmes;
› reflect on access practices for research purposes to
collections archived at Eastern European broadcasters.
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10. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Pilot Study Deliverables:
› Series of six short articles on a programme/broadcast
archived at an Eastern European FIAT/IFTA member
archive, including contextualizing sources illustrated and/or
discussed as part of the articles
› Guide of best practices to accessing Eastern European
television heritage
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11. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
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Case-Studies:
› Sleep Peacefully/Spavajte mirno (1968) – archived at Radio-Television
Serbia
› Reflector (1967-1977) – archived at Romanian Television Archives
› Who Knows What?/Ki mit tud? (1962) – archived at Hungarian National
Audiovisual Archive (NAVA)
› Gagarin’s return from space (1961) – produced by Soviet television,
accessed at Swedish Television Archives
› Blue Light/‘Kék fény (1965; 2002) – archived at NAVA
› On the Threshold of Adulthood/Zkouš ky z dospě losti (1979; 1993) –
archived at Czech TV archives
› District in the North (Okres na severu) – archived at Czech TV archives

12. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Sleep Peacefully
RTS-CPOPAR, Report 354: ‘Analiza pisma gledalaca upućenih
serijskoj emisiji “Spavaje mirno” + pisma gledalaca upućenih
serijskoj emisiji “Spavaje mirno” – izvodi’, Part I and II, 1969,
consulted at the archive of Radio-television Serbia’s Centre for
Public Opinion, Programme and Audience Research
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13. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Reflector
Personal interview with Stefan Dimitriu (programme-maker of Reflector):
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› Initially, the ‘visas’ were strictly political, they only prevented us from political mistakes. Censors
only interfered with political programmes. But we abided by self-censorship, we knew what we
were allowed and what not. The worst censors were some of the superiors in our department, who
did their job even before the programme would reach Vornicu [n.a. director of programmes].
[Dionisie] Sincan, for instance, was my editor-in-chief when the department of social- educational
programmes was created. He gave positive visas. Then, there was Manase Radnev, the adjuct
editor-in-chief, [...] who didn’t accept anything that was not standard, he cut all the attractive
parts in the programme. He was not fond of any subversive allusions, not even of more innocent
comments. He said they called for attention. He took no responsibility for humour in the
programme. Everyone was scared in case the comrades [n.a. Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu] were
watching. If someone had the bad luck of Ceausescu watching their programme and not liking it,
they would lose their job.’
› Reflector had its own tricks for evading censorship. We would go to the [censorship] screenings in
big groups, all of our colleagues would show up to support each other. We knew which were the
more sensitive parts of our programmes and when those were screening, one of us would try and
divert the attention of the censor, or he/she would talk over those parts in the programme, or
cough, or laugh. And then, many things would pass for approval.

14. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
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Who Knows What?
Miklós Karácsondi: Untitled manuscript about the making of Who Knows What?, shared with the
author by Karácsondi‘s widow

15. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
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Gagarin’s Return from Space
EBU and BBC documents:

16. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Blue Light
Personal interview with László Szabó, maker of the show
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17. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
On the Threshold of Adulthood & District in the North
Audience data & ‘family diaries’,
Consulted at Czech Television Archives
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18. faculty of arts media and journalism studies
Date 29-05-2013 |
Lessons Learnt
› Collaboration (among researchers; between researchers
and archivists; between different archive institutions) is
key
› ‘Subversion,’ ‘resistance’ and transnational cross-overs =
shared themes of access into Eastern European television
heritage
› Contextualization strategies are key
› ‘Expert communities’ made up of researchers & archivists
are necessary
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