The Romanian National Television and the Romanian Communist Party during the 1970s: A complicated relationship The Romanian National Television and the Romanian Communist Party during the 1970s: A complicated relationship (original) (raw)
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The structural formation of the leader cult in Communist Romania has been subject to intense scholarly debates since 1989. Most studies analyse its development and relationship with the social in association with the creation of mythology within the Romanian context, the evolution of ‘nationalist’ ideas, and political structural changes that affected the regime down to its core. This thesis unravels its mission in two ways: on one hand, it analyses the development of the leader cult in Romania during the 1970s by insisting on the role of the written press on feeding the regimes proclivities; on the other hand, it contextualizes the social and temporal boundaries of that evolution by an introspection into the importance of the Election of Nicolae Ceaușescu as the first President of Romania. As such, the thesis argues that this event had the role of legitimizing the leader in front of the Romanian people, while at the same time enhancing the image of Ceaușescu as the incorporation of national will. Furthermore, this short study brings about the content changes within the press that were triggered by the Election, as well as an analysis on how all leader cult elements have been gradually constructed by the press in the 1970s.
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