Description

Syllabus:

1. The importance of television as part of the cultural heritage in the shaping of the historical and visual memory of Europe. Analysis of different European events thorough video – film collections.
2. Television heritage. Using the past to understand the present. Concepts and importance of television heritage. Accessibility to European video archives. Cases RTVE and BBC.
3. Different perspectives and approaches to the academic study of television. PanEuropean Project VideoActive: history of Europe in TV. History on television and the history of television in Europe.
4. The peculiarities of television as a mass medium. The different genres and their evolution. Case of study: Euromonitor. Television flow and programming in the era of the network. Analysis of, at least, 3 European public tv stations.
5. News programs and reality as depicted on television. Concepts of frame and info-tainment . Study of at least 3 pieces of news in 3 different TV programs
6. Live transmissions and their impact on the creation of the public imagination Case of study: Eurovision (UER) 
7. Televised fiction and its influence on Spanish and European identity. Special attention will be given to EU values in TV series from 3 different countries.
8. Research on the influence of new tv formats: talk shows, reality shows, new styles in documentary reporting.
9. Audiences and their importance in the value assigned to television heritage. TV shows and Social Networks interaction. “Fans” phenomenon in Europe
10. Television and the VOD (Video on demand) platforms. Study of content and commercial strategy.  TV quality and TV cult ratio. Contribution to European heritage and culture.

This seminar aims, first of all, to highlight Spanish and European television heritage through participants’ (master’s and PhD students) reflection on the historical, social and cultural importance of television via analysis of cases studies on the history of Europe and the history of European television. It also seeks to encourage academic research on this medium, providing knowledge about the particularities of television, the evolution of academic studies of it and the analytical possibilities for different genres.

It will promote the completion of research on this area of study: at least one MFP (master's final project) each year and the completion of a doctoral thesis, as well as the organization of meetings with European professionals and specialists at a conference that will take place on World Day for Audiovisual Heritage and be held at the Faculty of Information Sciences. About a hundred people (students, teachers, people interested in the subject and so on) are expected to attend. INA, the UER and other bodies will take part in the conference.

One conference will be held each year (making for three in total). Proceedings will be streamed and made available for later playback on a You tube channel.

A thematic issue of the journal Documentación de las Ciencias de la Información (UCM) containing the papers from the conferences will be published (at the end of the Chair in 2023).