'...recommended as a highly exciting and wide-ranging reference for current TV productions from Eastern Europe.' Nicole Kandioler, rezens.tfm e-journal
'Popular Television in Eastern Europe During and Since Socialism greatly contributes to a better understanding of cultural Eastern European specificity. To achieve this goal, the volume does not keep its reflection to established geopolitical boundaries, instead, it proves how productive a more problematic approach can be. It questions assumed historical paradigms, includes Eastern European popular TV in the broader international history of the medium, promotes further reflection on national, regional and transnational media identities, and includes gender and ethnic varieties into a broader scope.' Francesco Pitassio, Cinema&Cie
Part 1: Popular Television in Socialist Times 1. Television Entertainment in Socialist Eastern Europe: Between Cold War Politics and Global Developments Sabina Mihelj 2. Adventures in Early Socialist Television Edutainment Aniko Imre 3. Television in the Age of (Post)Communism: The Case of Romania Dana Mustata 4. The Carnival of the Absurd: Stanislaw Bareja's Alternatywy 4 and Polish Television in the 1980s Dorota Ostrowska 5. An Evening with Friends and Enemies: Political Indoctrination in Popular East German Family Series Katja Kochanowski, Sascha Trultzsch, Reinhold Viehoff Part 2: Commercial Globalization and Eastern European TV 6. From a Socialist Endeavour to a Commercial Enterprise: Children's Television in East-Central Europe Kati Lustyik 7. Intra-European Media Imperialism: Hungarian Program Imports and the Television Without Frontiers Directive Timothy Havens, Evelyn Bottando, and Matthew S. Thatcher 8. To Be Romanian in Post-Communist Romania: Entertainment Television and Patriotism in Popular Discourse Adina Schneeweis 9. Quest for Viewers: How Polish Broadcasters Employ American TV Series in Competition over Audiences Sylvia Szostak Part 3: Television and National Identity on Europe's Edges 10. Big Brothers and Little Brothers: National Identity in Recent Romanian Adaptations of Global Television Formats Alice Bardan 11. The Way We Applauded: How Popular Culture Stimulates Collective Memory of the Socialist Past in Czechoslovakia - the Case of the Television Serial Vypravej and Its Viewers Irena Carpentier Reifova, Katerina Gillarova, Radim Hladik 12. Coy Utopia: Politics in the First Hungarian TV Soap Ferenc Hammer 13. Why Must Roma Minorities Be Always Seen on the Stage and Never in the Audience? Children's Opinions of Reality Roma TV Annabel Tremlett 14. Racing for the Audience: National Identity, Public TV and the Roma in Post-Socialist Slovenia Ksenija Vidmar-Horvat