Tele-Archives. Reframing Archival Research on Local Televisions Across Europe

This special issue of «Cinergie» − developed within the scope of the PRIN 2020 research project ATLas - Atlante delle Televisioni Locali (Atlas of Local Televisions) − intends to bring together a wide variety of contributions on local broadcasting in Europe, with a particular focus on the several ways in which archival research can delve into the evolution of media systems in different contexts, as well as investigate unexplored narratives in European television history. The existing literature has largely relied on memorialist accounts to assess the peculiarities of local TV stations. A thorough and systemic historical inquiry of Europe’s commercial broadcasting is however still lacking. The CFP consequently solicits contributions addressing the many single stories of local broadcasters in relation to more general interpretations of the progressive commercialization of European television. 

Italy provides an interesting case study to address the evolution undertaken during the 1980s by European televisions, but it also shows the need for a transnational and/or comparative analysis. Between 1974 and 1976, a series of rulings issued by the National Constitutional Court brought about a revolution in the country’s television landscape. Together with the 1975 reform of national PSB Rai, the Court provisions opened a new era in the history of Italian broadcasting, ending State’s monopoly and leading the way towards the growth of Italian local and private televisions. The ensuing commercialisation of Italian broadcasting was however connected to and sustained by larger historical transformations which cannot be confined within the nation’s geographical or political borders: technological innovations in broadcasting, increased market liberalisation, progressive segmentation of consumer habits all contributed to transnationally challenge the hitherto dominant European television paradigm, prompting a greater influence of American commercial television models and programs, as well as a variety of local and national responses. The eventual introduction, in 1989, of the European directive known as “Television without Frontiers” testifies to the strong relation between larger trends impacting media landscapes all across the continent and the evolution of European television broadcasting in the 1980s.

Since they represent one of the most valuable resources to study the past, archives can be framed from a wide variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, including comparative and cross-media scholarly points of view. Lack of access to audiovisual repositories and documentary sources referring to private TV stations has undermined a full understanding of their role and legacy. Accordingly, the recurrent absence of institutional databases demands a “patchwork” approach, fostering the adoption of an inter-textual outlook connecting the experience of local televisions with other media outlets such as newspapers, radio stations, cinema, etc. Such an integration of sources entails new strategies to collect, preserve and transmit audiovisual heritage, while providing fruitful insights into the history of broader European socio-economic and cultural developments throughout the 1980s. 

Following the “archival turn” undertaken in film, media and television studies, this special issue of «Cinergie» will gather contributions that deal with − but are not strictly limited to − the following topics and issues: 

• the role of formal and informal TV and media archives in shaping private and public memories, cultures and identities, especially in Europe and with reference to different territorial scales (i.e. transnational, national, regional, local);
• the rediscovery of hidden TV and media archives, including forgotten or marginalised figures, stories, TV programmes, genres and schedules;
• the resort to audiovisual archive to shed light on TV production and distribution patterns, with a special focus on industrial details;
• the integration, in addition to audiovisual records, of different archival sources (i.e. sound recordings, images, scripts, interviews), the role played by grey archives (i.e. those storing administrative deeds and business data) and the enhancement of oral history practices within academic research on local broadcasting;
• the technical, editorial and commercial structure of TV archives: data treatment, sampling criteria, content hierarchies and discovery tools;
• academic, historical and public uses of archives: methodological and theoretical standpoints, limits and problems of database access between analogical and digital repositories;
• data circulation and dissemination strategies, with a special focus on local TV and commercial broadcasting;
• the evolution and survival of media archives: policies, open science practices, IP protection, alternative approaches towards the revitalisation of cultural heritage.

 

Please send a 300/500-word abstract and a short bio (50-100 words, in English) to Giulia Crisanti and Paola Zeni at giulia.crisanti@uniroma1.it and paola.zeni@unito.it by January 10, 2025 – [subject: Cinergie Application + name surname author(s)].

Notification of acceptance will be sent by January 31, 2025.

If the proposal is accepted, the author(s) will be asked to submit the full article by May 20, 2025.

Articles (in English or Italian) must not exceed 6,000 words and may include images, clips, and links for illustrative purposes. Please provide proper credits, permissions, and copyright information to ensure that images, clips, and links are copyright-free and can be published.

Contributions will undergo a double-blind peer-review.

Expected publication: December 2025.

 

Please note that the 16th edition of Media Mutations International Conference - Unlocking Television Archives in the Digital Era, to be held in Bologna in May 26-27, 2025, will focus on some of the topics covered by the issue; cross-applications are welcome. More information are available on the Media Mutations website.