Television and Political Communication in the Late Soviet Union

Television and Political Communication in the Late Soviet Union
Author: Kirsten Bönker
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2020-07-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1498526896

This study focuses on Soviet television audiences and examines their watching habits and the way they made use of television programs. Kirsten Bönker challenges the common misconception that viewers perceived Soviet television programming and entertainment culture as dull and formulaic. This study draws extensively on archival sources and oral history interviews to analyze how Soviet television involved audiences in political communication and how it addressed audiences’ emotional commitments to Soviet values and the Soviet way of life. Bönker argues that the Brezhnev era influenced political stability and brought an unprecedented rise of the living standards, creating new meanings for consumerism, the idea of the “home,” and private life among Soviet citizens. Exploring the concept of emotional bonding, this study engages broader discussions on the durability of the Soviet Union until perestroika.

From Media Systems to Media Cultures

From Media Systems to Media Cultures
Author: Sabina Mihelj
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1108422608

Proposes an original framework for comparative media research, and uses it to provide fascinating insights into television under communist rule.

Television Beyond and Across the Iron Curtain

Television Beyond and Across the Iron Curtain
Author: Kirsten Bönker
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2016-09-23
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1443816434

From the mid-1950s onwards, the rise of television as a mass medium took place in many East and West European countries. As the most influential mass medium of the Cold War, television triggered new practices of consumption and media production, and of communication and exchange on both sides of the Iron Curtain. This volume leans on the long-neglected fact that, even during the Cold War era, television could easily become a cross-border matter. As such, it brings together transnational perspectives on convergence zones, observations, collaborations, circulations and interdependencies between Eastern and Western television. In particular, the authors provide empirical ground to include socialist television within a European and global media history. Historians and media, cultural and literary scholars take interdisciplinary perspectives to focus on structures, actors, flow, contents or the reception of cross-border television. Their contributions cover Albania, the CSSR, the GDR, Russia and the Soviet Union, Serbia, Slovenia and Yugoslavia, thus complementing Western-dominated perspectives on Cold War mass media with a specific focus on the spaces and actors of East European communication. Last but not least, the volume takes a long-term perspective crossing the fall of the Iron Curtain, as many trends of the post-socialist period are linked to, or pick up, socialist traditions.

Changing Channels

Changing Channels
Author: Ellen Propper Mickiewicz
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780822324638

New in paperback Revised and expanded During the tumultuous 1990s, as Russia struggled to shed the trappings of the Soviet empire, television viewing emerged as an enormous influence on Russian life. The number of viewers who routinely watch the nightly news in Russia matches the number of Americans who tune in to the Super Bowl, thus making TV coverage the prized asset for which political leaders intensely--and sometimes violently--compete. In this revised and expanded edition of Changing Channels, Ellen Mickiewicz provides many fascinating insights, describing the knowing ways in which ordinary Russians watch the news, skeptically analyze information, and develop strategies for dealing with news bias. Covering the period from the state-controlled television broadcasts at the end of the Soviet Union through the attempted coup against Gorbachev, the war in Chechnya, the presidential election of 1996, and the economic collapse of 1998, Mickiewicz draws on firsthand research, public opinion surveys, and many interviews with key players, including Gorbachev himself. By examining the role that television has played in the struggle to create political pluralism in Russia, she reveals how this struggle is both helped and hindered by the barrage of information, advertisements, and media-created personalities that populate the airwaves. Perhaps most significantly, she shows how television has emerged as the sole emblem of legitimate authority and has provided a rare and much-needed connection from one area of this huge, crisis-laden country to the next. This new edition of Changing Channels will be valued by those interested in Russian studies, politics, media and communications, and cultural studies, as well as general readers who desire an up-to-date view of crucial developments in Russia at the end of the twentieth century.

The Post-Soviet Russian Media

The Post-Soviet Russian Media
Author: Birgit Beumers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2008-11-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134112394

Presenting original research from a number of well-known international specialists, this book is a detailed investigation of the development of mass media in Russia since the end of Communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Consumption and Advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia in the Twentieth Century

Consumption and Advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia in the Twentieth Century
Author: Magdalena Eriksroed-Burger
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2023-02-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 303120204X

This book explores Eastern European consumer cultures in the twentieth century, taking a comparative perspective and conceptualizing the peculiarities of consumption in the region. Contributions cover lifestyles and marketing strategies in imperial contexts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; urban consumer cultures in the Interwar Period; and consumer and advertising cultures in the Soviet Union and its satellite republics. It traces the development of marketing throughout the century, and the changes in society brought about by democratization and the 'Americanization' of consumption. Taken together, the essays gathered here make a valuable contribution to our understanding of consumption and advertising in the region.

James Bond's Socialist Rivals

James Bond's Socialist Rivals
Author: TARIK CYRIL AMAR
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2024-11-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190916281

James Bond's Socialist Rivals focuses on blockbuster television series in the former Soviet bloc of the Cold War to recover a world of spy fiction entertainment that was both hugely popular and of great and deliberate political importance for the Communist regimes.

The SAGE Handbook of Political Communication

The SAGE Handbook of Political Communication
Author: Holli A Semetko
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2012-04-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1473971209

This authoritative and comprehensive survey of political communication draws together a team of the world′s leading scholars to provide a state-of-the-art review that sets the agenda for future study. It is divided into five sections: Part One: explores the macro-level influences on political communication such as the media industry, new media, technology, and political systems Part Two: takes a grassroots perspective of the influences of social networks - real and online - on political communication Part Three: discusses methodological advances in political communication research Part Four: focuses on power and how it is conceptualized in political communication Part Five: provides an international, regional, and comparative understanding of political communication in its various contexts The SAGE Handbook of Political Communication is an essential benchmark publication for advanced students, researchers and practitioners in the fields of politics, media and communication, sociology and research methods.

A Siberian History of Soviet Film

A Siberian History of Soviet Film
Author: Caroline Damiens
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2024-09-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350269905

In A Siberian History of Soviet Film, Caroline Damiens explores how the depictions of the indigenous 'Peoples of the North' in Soviet cinema and television evolved between 1920 and 1980. Damiens combines a detailed analysis of key works such as Forest People (1928), Igdenbu (1930), Dersu Uzala (1961 & 1975), Tymancha's Friend (1969) and The Most Beautiful Ships (1972), with primary sources like press articles, archives, and interviews, to reveal how these cinematic portrayals were created and negotiated, providing insight into the concepts of progress and authenticity in the Soviet context. She emphasises the role of indigenous individuals in shaping their cinematic image, both in front of and behind the camera, highlighting the works of lesser-known figures like Suntsai Geonka, Zinaida Pikunova, and Iurii Rytkheu. In doing so, Damiens emphasises the multifaceted nature of film, where interpretations differ based on the perspectives of those involved. Using a decolonial approach and drawing from extensive archival materials, Damiens prompts a re-evaluation of the Soviet cinematic past and present by centring indigenous voices in the narrative. In doing so, she provides a thorough exploration of the intricate relationship between culture, representation, and identity in Soviet cinema.