Remembering Television: Histories, Technologies, Memories
This path-breaking book extends our knowledge of the social and cultural impacts of television, asking new questions about the ways television’s technologies and programming have been experienced, understood and remembered. Television has served as a companion to the historical events that have unfolded in our everyday lives both on and off the screen, and its presence is intricately bound up in our memories of the past and actions in the present.
As this volume demonstrates, the influence of television over individual and family behaviours, national identity and ideas of global citizenship is complex and wide-ranging. Drawing upon recent developments in memory studies, history, media and cultural studies, and with particular reference to Australia, leading scholars explore the histories of television, and how its programs and personalities have been celebrated, recalled with nostalgia or simply forgotten.
Topics covered include the pre-figuring of television; memories of the struggle for transmission in remote locations; the transnational experience of television for immigrant communities; the evocation of television programs through spin-off products; televised war reportage and censorship; and the value of ‘unofficial’ television archives such as YouTube. As a whole, these essays offer a striking and original examination of the connections between history, memory and television in today’s world.
Kate Darian-Smith is Professor of Australian Studies and History at the University of Melbourne, and a Fellow of the Academy of The Social Sciences in Australia. She has published widely on the social and cultural histories of Australia, on colonial cultures, and the relationships between memory and history. Her most recent book is Children, Childhood and Cultural Heritage (Routledge, 2012).
Sue Turnbull is Professor of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Wollongong. Her research interests include media education and television, with particular attention to comedy and crime. She is a co-editor of Particip@tions, the online journal of audience and reception studies and editor of Media International Australia.
“Our memories of television are crucial components of our sense of personal history, and one of the ways we experience our national histories. In this rich and exciting collection, some of our leading scholars examine the relationships between television, histories, and memory.”
– Professor Graeme Turner, Centre for Critical Cultural Research, University of Queensland
“. . . it makes us rethink what counts as a ‘history of television’. Its case studies may be Australian, but this book has much to say to television scholars everywhere – and indeed scholars of cultural memory more widely.”
– Professor Martin Barker, Professor of Film and Television Studies, University of East Anglia
“While the focus is on Australia and New Zealand, the work presented here deserves to be read internationally by academics, students, librarians, archivists and industry. Just as television compels audiences, so too does this unique book.”
– Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley, Director, Centre for Media History, Macquarie University
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