Television Entertainment in Socialist Eastern Europe: Between Cold War Politics and Global Developments

Abstract

research on post-socialist media has so far been largely concerned with media policies, news genres, journalistic cultures and media ownership. Nonetheless, this literature offers valuable lessons that are worth keeping in mind when examining the transformation of television entertainment. First, it is evident that a simple before-and-after framework will not take us far. While the landscape of popular television in the region changed dramatically over the past two decades, any account of this transformation needs to be mindful not only of discontinuities, but also of continuities with the socialist period. Second, media systems in the region were internally diverse. While some countries entered communism with a welldeveloped broadcasting infrastructure and entertainment industry, others had to build both virtually from scratch. Local appropriations of the socialist media model differed as well.And third, an adequate interpretation of popular television in Eastern Europe, both before and after 1989, needs to situate regional developments within the broader, international framework of television history.Building on these points, the following pages set out to chart some of the characteristics of television entertainment in Eastern Europe before 1989. The first part addresses the issue of continuities and discontinuities, focusing on the role of Western imports and entertainment programming. While it is true that the collapse of communism