Slovene Suplement, Vol. 15 - 2008, Suplement

Domestication of television in Slovenia: Private and public uses of television in a historical perspective

Maruša Pušnik, pages: 113-132

The article discusses the uses of television in Slovenia in the 1960s and 1970s, when television massively entered into people’s homes. Television played a significant role in political, economic and cultural transformations of the Slovenian society in the second half of the twentieth century. The author reconstructs the cultural history of television through the perspectives of its consumers – TV viewers, and investigates what people did with television, how they used it, domesticated it and, finally, how they appropriated television and identified with it. The analysis of uses of television and practises of watching television is focused on television as a technology (TV as a technical apparatus), a media institution (RTV Ljubljana), and a cultural text (TV program or TV contents). The author investigates the consequences of the introduction of television into the homes of thousands of viewers for the individuals and their private sphere as well as for the wider society. The analysis of the interviews about the uses of television reveals that television played a crucial role in the processes of urbanisation of the Slovenian society, in contesting socialism, in the formation of the Slovene national consciousness, in the reorganization of the household and family relations, and in the spread of the individualization and alienation processes.

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