An entertaining (r)evolution: the rise of television in socialist Slovenia

Abstract

If you let a television set through your door, life can never be the same again. (Daily Mirror, 1950) Sixteen years after Slovenia's secession from Yugoslavia, popular political debates in the country still revolve around the question of who should be given most credit for the political changes that led to the independent republic being established. In a political sense it is appealing to ascribe 'national heroism' to one person or another, and later to exploit their symbolic political capital, but the invention of such figures adds little to an understanding of the collective changes that had already started decades before. This article intends to avoid an emphasis on human actors and will instead focus on one of the most influential non-human actors (Latour, 1999) of modern times -television. Our epistemological framework utilizes Latour's paradigm which understands society (in the narrow sense of human organization) as a collective (as society in a broader sense, including humans and non-humans). In this sense, our view attributes the ability to bring about social change not only to human actors such as journalists, editors, politicians or privileged voices of other individuals who appear on screen, but also to the apparatus itself -to televised images, to the modes of their dissemination and to all televised cultural production in Bourdieu's sense (1993).Although the causal relationship between television and social change is complicated, there is strong evidence that popular cultural forms can hold immense potential for changing social and cultural milieus (Eyerman and

The secular trend in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the population of primary school children from Ljubljana (Slovenia)

“…The main finding of our study is that during 1991−2011, OW&OB became clearly more prevalent in children from Ljubljana with the only real exception at the beginning of the studied period, which is probably due to a significant migration of the population after the Unauthenticated Download Date | 5/9/18 8:00 PM establishment of the new state of Slovenia in 1991 (37). The increase in the proportion of OW&OB children in developed countries is a result of the different ways young people spend their free time, characterised mainly by physical inactivity (2) and inappropriate diets marked by energy-rich food and unsuitable eating habits (14,16,38).…”

“…Enormous socio-political and economic changes in Slovenia in the last 20 years have strongly influenced the lifestyles, nutritional habits of children and youth and their physical development (37)(38)(39)(40)(41). Clearly, the prevalence of OW&OB is also taking on epidemic proportions in Ljubljana's school population.…”

A Tear in the Iron Curtain: The Impact of Western Television on Consumption Behavior

“…3).3 On the role of consumption shortages in East Germany, seeSchneider (1996) andKaminsky (2001). On (Western) television stoking consumption desire in former Yugoslavia, seePušnik and Starc (2008). More recently, increasing levels of consumerism and craving for capitalistic status symbols have been observed in North Korea: Frank (2010),Frank (2012, pp.40-41),Lankov (2013), Economist (2013).…”

Television Cultures of Socialist Yugoslavia

“…Socialist television culture gained more attention recently, with the cultural turn in media and communication studies of socialism. During the last decade, several studies of television production, content and reception under socialism were published (Meyen and Scwer 2007;Pušnik and Starc 2008;Reifova and Pavličkova 2013;Gumbert 2014;Peruško and Čuvalo 2014;Mihelj and Huxtable 2018;Peruško et al 2021). The focus is mostly on the institutional infrastructure, elite views, professional practices, TV programmes, and less on the audience practices and perspectives (Reifova and Pavličkova 2013;Luthar 2010).…”

“…Several studies focusing on South and East Europe have been published during last decade covering television production, content and audiences during socialist times (e.g. Pušnik and Starc 2008;Reifova and Pavličkova 2013;Gumbert 2014;Peruško and Čuvalo 2014;Huxtable 2018, Peruško et. al.…”