Television as a Hybrid Repertoire of Memory. New Dynamic Practices of Cultural Memory in the Multi-Platform Era (original) (raw)
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Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies, 2017
Modern audiences engage with representations of the past in a particular way via the medium of television, negotiating a shared understanding of the past. This is evidenced by the increasing popularity of reboots, newly developed history and documentary programming, re-use of archival footage and nostalgia content. This article takes a closer look at television’s abilities to circulate and contextualize the past in the current era of convergence through narrowcasting or niche programming on digital television platforms, specifically via nostalgia programming. Such platforms exemplify the multifaceted way of looking at and gaining access to television programming through a variety of connected platforms and screens in the current multi-platform era. Since the way in which television professionals (producers, schedulers, commissioners, researchers) act as moderators in this process needs to be further analysed, the article places an emphasis on how meaningful connections via previously broadcast history and nostalgia programming are also curated, principally through scheduling and production practices for niche programming – key elements in television’s creative process that have received less academic attention. Furthermore, the article discusses to what extent media policy in the Netherlands is attuned to the (re-)circulation of previously broadcast content and programming about past events, and reflects on television’s possibilities for “re-screening” references to the past in the contemporary media landscape. The analysis is based on a combination of textual analysis of audio-visual archival content and a production studies approach of interviews with key professionals, to gain insight into the creators’ strategies in relation to nostalgia programming and scheduling. Subsequently, the article demonstrates how national collective memory, as understood by television professionals in the Netherlands, informs the scheduling and circulation of “living history” on the digital thematic channel – collective cultural memory hence functioning as a TV guide.
Streaming media and the dynamics of remembering and forgetting: The Chernobyl case
Memory Studies, 2021
The aim of this study is to elucidate the mnemonic conditions established in the ever-increasing production and use of cultural memory in streaming media environments. To gain in-depth insight into how memories are selected for remembering and sorted for forgetting, the focus is the HBO Chernobyl mini-series. The case study of HBO's Chernobyl is selected to qualitatively explore cultural memories across the series throughout the complexities of globally connected technologies and markets, where different cultures and languages, as well as media framings, come into play. Theoretically, the article is based on conceptualization of cultural memory studies and streaming media platforms. Methodologically, the case study is supported by the multidimensional analytical lens developed by Erll, adopted to elucidate how the cultural memory of Chernobyl is activated, mediated, and shaped by the streaming series. These three dimensions involve the intra-medial aspects of how memory is expressed within the representation itself, the inter-medial relations which designate the interplay with previous representations of the same historical event, and the pluri-medial contexts in which novels and films appear and exert their influence on cultural memory. In the threedimension analysis, we address the construction and circulation of cultural memory from the production to the reception of the mini-series in multiple media environments and across borders, depicting the social, cultural, and political impact of streaming media productions.
Repurposing Television’s Past: Re-Screening, History and Memory in the Multi-Platform Era
Rundfunk und Geschichte, 2011
Medienhistorische Forschungen kritisch und fördernd zu begleiten, steht im Zentrum der Aufgaben des »Studienkreises Rundfunk und Geschichte«. Die Unterstützung des wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses spielt dabei eine ganz besondere Rolle. So veranstaltete der »Studienkreis« seit Mitte der 1970er Jahre Examenskolloquien und führt seit 2007 in der Lutherstadt Wittenberg -basierend auf einer Callfor-Proposals-Ausschreibung -das »Medienhistorische Forum« für Absolventen und Forschungsnachwuchs durch. Vor diesem Hintergrund startete die Zeitschrift »Rundfunk und Geschichte« in der Ausgabe 1-2/2009 eine neue Rubrik innerhalb ihres »Forums«. Promovierende erhalten die Möglichkeit, ihre Dissertationsprojekte zu medienhistorischen Themen vorzustellen, über Quellenrecherchen zu berichten und ihren wissenschaftlichen Ansatz zur Diskussion zu stellen.
Performing Cultural Memory: The Holocaust in Dutch Multi-Platform TV Documentary
Holocaust Intersections: Genocide and Visual Culture at the New Millennium, 2013
In this book chapter, I consider how programme makers through a specific selection of strategies represent and construct the Holocaust in multi-platform television documentaries. After an initial reflection on the growing interest in the re-screening of the past, the focus of this analysis will be on how the Dutch television documentaries 13 IN DE OORLOG [13 AT WAR] (NPS, 2009–2010) and DE OORLOG [THE WAR] (NPS, 2009) represent this difficult and complex subject matter for different target groups. This includes deliberating on the extent in which memory narratives have been affected by the passing of time and intermediate events, and how to convey such narratives to audiences. The historical programme 13 IN DE OORLOG was a youth documentary/drama series produced by public broadcaster NPS in cooperation with educational broadcaster Teleac/NOT (since merged into NTR). Its purpose was to introduce the major historical events of World War II in the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies (the Dutch colony that became Indonesia after World War II) to young viewers. The NPS produced this series together with the history documentary series DE OORLOG. In contrast to the youth series, DE OORLOG focused on new insights into the events before, during and after the occupation. This study is founded on an analysis of the two projects and their creators' strategies of broadcasting and multi-platform storytelling in relation to Holocaust representation (by means of textual analysis (close audiovisual analysis) in combination with in-depth interviews and analysis of internal documents). I use poetics as a research model for exploring television practitioners' aims, strategies and conventions of contemporary representations of past events (1) an institutional level; (2) a cultural-historical level, to finally, 3) a textual and narrative level.
On Media Memory: Collective Memory in a New Media Age
This volume offers a comprehensive discussion of the concept of Media Memory and brings Media and Mediation to the forefront of Collective Memory research. Twenty concise and thought-provoking essays, by leading scholars of communication research and collective memory studies, address fundamental conceptual challenges and discuss specific case studies in order to illuminate theoretical questions. The scope of the essays reflects a diversity of media technologies including print, television, radio, film and new media; media genres such as news, fiction and documentary; and cultural contexts comprising analyses from the US, UK, Spain, Nigeria, France, Germany and the Middle East.