In, The Greengrocer and His TV: The Culture of Communism After the 1968 Prague Spring, Paulina Bren discusses how the people of Czechoslovakia were affected by the actions brought by the Soviet Union when they put an end to the reform. Bren mentions many television serials, articles, and journalists throughout the text, giving examples of the ways the media played a role in making sure normalization worked. Paulina Bren points out that the Communist leaders in Czechoslovakia used compelling tactics during normalization to ensure that the people of Czechoslovakia remained true to Communism and would not try to reform again. And Bren shows that the Communist leaders’ efforts succeeded by explaining how the culture in Czechoslovakia evolved during …show more content…
and after normalization in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The Prague Spring inspired probably the most liberal actions Czechoslovakia had seen in years. Under new secretary Alexander Dubcek, Czechoslovakia’s economy was failing. In January of 1968, Dubcek led Czechoslovakia into a reform. It was not long until the people of Czechoslovakia were pushing for their own version of socialism (History.com). The actions of the Czechoslovaks did not sit well with the Communist leaders in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union began to act against Czechoslovakia in August of 1968. They forced Dubcek to stop the reform and move into what the Communist Party was calling normalization. On April 17th, 1969, the Soviet Union outed Dubcek, and a new Secretary came into power (Bren 29 and 32). For the next several years, normalization swept through Czechoslovakia, and the country returned to strict communist policies. Media came to play a role in normalization.
Television was becoming more popular in Czechoslovakia, and the communist leaders took advantage of it. Bren wrote in her book that by the mid to late 1970’s, most people in Czechoslovakia owned a television. However, before the Prague spring, the Communist party did not have much first-hand experience with media and what the media was capable of (112). One point that Bren interestingly brings up is about the access to Western television that Eastern countries had. She talks of Milena Balasova, who had strong views about Communist television programming and Western television. Balasova believed that in order for Communist programming to be popular and effective with Czechoslovaks, the programming needed to deviate from Western programming (Bren 120). However, Bren argued against Balasova’s point, writing that her opinion is the exact opposite of what Balasova’s. Bren wrote that the Communist television writers needed to create shows and serials in the same manner as Western television because Western television was what the Communists were up against (121).
As normalization continued, the Communist leaders and television writers became better at peaking the interest of the public in Czechoslovakia. Bren discusses many television serials that arose in Czechoslovakia during the 1970’s, and many of them were extremely popular. Two television serials that stuck out most to me were The Youngest in the Hamr Dynasty and A Hospital on the Edge of Town. Both of these serials had strong communist themes and reached over 80 percent of Czechoslovakian television owners (Bren 136 and 145). Many people were watching and loving these portrayals of ideological communist
worlds. The Youngest in the Hamr started broadcasting on television in 1975. The serial tells the story of a young man, Jan, in Czechoslovakia after World War II who becomes the owner and caretaker of his family’s farmland. Jan begins thinking of the idea of collectivism, but no one around him agrees, including his mother. Soon, the Communists come into Czechoslovakia with the same idea. Jan quickly joins in on the efforts to build up a collectivist system and serves as a sort of middleman between the communist party and the citizens of Czechoslovakia. Jan is able to explain the ideas of collectivism in ways that civilians could understand. Jan’s conversations make him well-liked by the collectivism supporters in Czechoslovakia. During the Prague Spring, however, you can see that Jan’s popularity decreases. Also at this time, his mother passes away. When the serial reaches to normalization, viewers can see that Jan regains his reputation and is even more elite than before. (Bren 133-136). As I mentioned before, this television serial gained a lot of popularity in Czechoslovakia. Many people watched the serial when it aired, and many people sent in messages and letters to the writers of the serial to express their support (Bren 137). This serial had a strong connection to collectivism, and it was created to an extent to reassure the importance and need for collectivism. However, the bigger message of this serial, according to Bren, is the beginning of communication between the Communist party and the citizens of Czechoslovakia (138). I would even go as far to say that this serial was created to spark conversation between viewers about Communism. The Soviet Union strived to spread Communism across the globe. The Youngest in the Hamr showed that conversation about Communist ideas can turn into something great, and this message reached over eighty percent of the Czechoslovakian citizens. If discussions are happening in one area, the word travels to others and the word usually spreads fast. This serial could have been a chance for the Soviet Union to spread the idea of Communism to other areas of the world. A Hospital at the Edge of Town was also an extremely popular television serial in the time of normalization. People all over the western block of Europe watched this serial; its popularity was not only in Czechoslovakia. The television serial follows a hospital staff in a socialist Czechoslovakian environment. Although there were not as many Communist references throughout the serial, it still displayed the ideas of a socialist health care system (Bren 145). Again, I feel that this show was a great way to start up a discussion. Television serials that leave viewers talking with one another are a great way to spread propaganda, and the Communist television writers took advantage of that. Several other countries tried to reform just as Czechoslovakia tried. In Poland, the economy was also failing, and workers gathered together to protest and unionize against the Communist party in 1980. As a result of the protest, the communist leaders forced the prime minister of Poland to outlaw unionization and the right to strike. Even though it was illegal, some workers still continued to protest the Communist Party until 1989. 1989 is when the Soviet Union collapsed (Donovan). In Hungary, the reform that started in 1953 turned into a violent revolution. The Soviet Union quickly defeated Hungary in 1956, taking thousands of lives in the process (History.com). From what Bren explains in her text, Czechoslovakia’s response to the Communist party’s restrictions on reform was very calm compared to Hungary. Poland, on the other hand, continued their reform underground and out of sight of the Communist Party. Czechoslovakia however fell back into the practices of Communism when the Communist leaders shut down the reform. Overall, Bren shares interesting and compelling information about Czechoslovakia during the time of the Cold War and normalization. She displays one of the Soviet Union’s moments of strength during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Over the course of a decade, Communist leaders in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia were able to take something so new and advanced that they had never worked with before and use it to their advantage. The leaders were able to use the media in television to manipulate the minds of Czechoslovaks. The television serials created by Communist writers displayed idealistic worlds and reaffirmed the idea of Communism in the minds of citizens who watched. Bren explains this all very well in her book. Paulina Bren uses a greengrocer in the title of her book (Bren 7). A greengrocer is a great example of who was really at the front of the reforms against communism during this time. In the long run, the workers were the ones who wanted the rights to speak freely and make their own decisions. The workers realized the flaws of Communism and saw the need for change. On the other hand, the workers were the primary target of the Communist Party’s propaganda in Czechoslovakia. The idea of using a greengrocer as the main subject for the title of this book was a very smart and creative idea of Bren’s. She was able to capture both sides of the Czechoslovakian reform and normalization in 1968.
The mass media has an essential role in today’s society as a channel of valuable information. Lots of people rely on media as the epicenter of information and as the yardstick on which they form their decisions and opinions (Agner, 1999). Any selection of messages in the mass media would have a profound impact on the entire society, this is according to Cultural selection theory. In the short story “Gray Noise”, Rojo uses this story to express his annoyance toward technology, but more specifically his most effective critic is on how society has overpowered valuable news with “dramaturgically crafted news” (Vettehen) and competition while desensitizing their viewers. Since competition has also stiffened up in are of mass media as the attention of readers, TV-viewers and listeners are fought for by every journalist. For this reason, every news media has turned to other strategies such as scandal-mongering and entertainment as tools of making a profit since a large audience is assured of such news even if they are not correct. Rojo’s views on critics of technology are widely shared among many people including the authors of the following studies, “Research Note: Sensationalism in Dutch Current Affairs Programmes by Paul Hendriks Vettehen
People can be classified into two categories, meat eaters and non meat eaters. Meat eaters or carnivores are common in society so there has to be a tremendous amount of meat production to meet these needs. But has anyone ever thought about the amount of fuel and energy it takes to make it and how it would ultimately destroy the Earth? Many have and it revealed to them that the cost of being a vegan or vegetarian is far less than continuing their carnivorous ways. Two authors have their opinions to offer, even if they are on the same side of the argument and want to convert people to being a vegan. In “Eating Green” Margaret Lundberg states why becoming a vegan is healthy, not only for the person, but also the environment. John Vidal’s “10 Ways Vegetarianism Can Help Save the Planet”
In the article, “Eating Green,” by Margaret Lundberg, the author states that she believes a vegetarian diet would benefit the health of our bodies as well as the health of our planet. In her thesis, she says, “I believe that our personal and global health is tightly interconnected, and what benefits one will benefit the other” (570). Lundberg’s point in this article is to share her beliefs as to why Americans should become vegetarian. She also explains how pollution, global warming, agriculture and our love for meat is killing our bodies and our future. Lundberg did not provide enough persuasive evidence as to how us becoming vegetarians or vegans would help our planet, she just gives her view
In Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism and American Culture, Thomas Doherty profiles the 1950's Red Scare, also known as McCarthyism, and its vast effect on American culture during that time. Doherty arms his audience with the revealing history behind the rise and fall of Senator Joe McCarthy, as well as the roots of the anti-communist attitude during the Cold War era that led to the rise of McCarthyism. He discusses the effects of McCarthyism on the entertainment world of the 1950's; the blacklisting of actors, actresses, and producers; many important trials, such as the Army-McCarthy Hearings; and, finally, the end of McCarthyism. An interesting section of the book titled I Love Lucy: The Redhead and the Blacklist demonstrates that in a time
East Germany, its demise relayed through the mass media of recent history, has in popular consciousness been posited as negative, a corrupt bulwark of the last dying days of Communism in Eastern Europe, barren and silent. The other Germany to its West, its citizens free, was striding confidently ahead into the millennium. Recent cinema has sought to examine re-unification, the Wolfgang Becker film Goodbye Lenin! (2003) a recent example of such an investigation into the past through cinema. In this essay I will look at the film and the narrative techniques it uses, probing whether it portrays the East German nation as positive or negative, concluding that though many negatives are identified, some positives are deduced from Honecker's state. I will also consider why, in recent times, East Germans have come to regard their former state with nostalgia, or as the Germans would put it, ostalgie, an act which Goodbye Lenin! (2003) explores.
Jeffrey D. Sachs’s essay “ A Nation of Vidiot” focuses on his views about the American relationship with televisions. In his essay explaining why people should avoid watching TV too much. And the author also gives readers a reason to believe in the articles that he wrote. He explained the problem to television advertising used to sell the product and the country's politics. There are fine examples why developing countries the consequences that have ever television were created. And he has to convince his readers when he criticized some of the problems seen too much television can cause people watch television as reduced memory, and body weakness. However, for the children, the TV screens the main tool of the children. The authors also offer TV how difficult and dangerous for television viewers. Overall it’s a pretty interesting read, but one thing is sure: the essay is a
Tuchman, Gaye. The TV Establishment: Programming for Power and Profit. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., l971.
"Kennedy, John F." Television in American Society Reference Library. Ed. Laurie Collier Hillstrom and Allison McNeill. Vol. 3: Primary Sources. Detroit: UXL, 2007. 65-76. U.S. History in Context. Web. 13 Jan. 2014. Source.
In the fall of 1989, people all around the world were watching unbelievable scenes on their televisions. Thousands of people in eastern Europe were meeting in the streets and squares and demanding the end of the communist rule. For the first time in history, opposition to communism was publicly voiced. Barbed wire border fences in Hungary are being torn down. East Germans fleeing to the West.
...e American Dream. Larry Ceplair and Englund stated in the book The Inquistion in Hollywood, “The destruction of the motion picture Left not only transformed the political atmosphere in Hollywood, but also adversely affected the kind of product which the studios turned out. “ In the early 20th century Hollywood reframed from producing politically controversial films in fear of becoming a target of McCarthy or the HUAC. Anti-communism influences the films produced, films portrayed communism as evil and immoral. The films during the cold war certainly portrayed the political storm between the progressive left and the conservative right. Films such as Ninotchka in 1939, showed anti-communism, guilty of Treason 1949, showed an attack against communism, exploiting the evils of communism was shown in Docudrama. The Red Menace in 1949 showed the immense threat f communism.
Television networks used these types of shows to protect themselves from any accusations that they were sending out “Communist messages”, but these shows subsequently influenced a generation into a new way of thinking and living. Families moved in rapid numbers to suburbia and wanted to be just like the Cleavers or the Andersons. The American public would never be the same, always reflecting on the perfection played out nightly on television and setting their goals to reach that level of traditionalism. The Hollywood Blacklisting that followed the Red Scare of the 1950’s forced the media to change in order to survive the scrutinizing committees of the HUAC and various congressional committees that pushed for the social “purging” of America in hopes of searching out the “Reds” which they believed were hiding among them. This change in media came at a time when the public had become extremely receptive to such influences due to the spread of the television and the growth of the middle class who had extra money to spend on luxuries such as going to the movie theatres.
The ‘Golden Age of Television’ is what many refer to as the period between the 1950s and 60s when the television began to establish itself as a prevalent medium in the United States. In 1947, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Du Mont Network were the four main television networks that ran stations with regular programming taking place. (Television, 2003) While regular television programming was a new innovation, the television itself had been commercially available for over twenty years prior to the 50s. It was conceived by many worldly innovators and went through several testing stages before it was finally completed in the late twenties. The three main innovators were Niplow - who first developed a rotating disk with small holes arranged in a spiral pattern in 1884, Zworykin - who developed the Iconoscope which could scan pictures and break them into electronic signals (a primitive form of the Cathode Ray Tube) in 1923, and lastly Fansworth - who demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to transmit an electrical image in 1927. (Rollo, 2011) However, one of the many reasons why this medium was successful in the 50s was due to the fact that it became more accessible to the public. Television sets were more affordable to middle class citizens which created further interest in the new technology. Through an historical account of the medium, the spread of television across America throughout this particular decade will be examined.
“How can you say the things you say you feel like when every thing outside is green like it is.” This statement from Mayfly is just one example of the misunderstandings between Mitch and Mayfly. The short story, “Everything is Green” by David Foster Wallace is about a couple having relationship problems. From the point of view of Mitch, we see how he is being emotionally neglected by Mayfly and how he feels he needs to chase his own happiness before it is too late. Mayfly, on the rare occasions she speaks, only expresses her failure to comprehend the situation that they are in. Her inability to articulate her inner thoughts give us little understanding of how she feels about the change Mitch is demanding. Wallace shows how unalike they are
Wilson Center. Cold War Broadcasting: Impact on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Cold War International History Project. 14 October 2010. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
Encapsulated in a democratic homeland since the advent of time, media systems are habitually acclaimed as the “fourth power,” with its journalists often hailed as the “watch-dogs” of such a society. Lending itself to act as ‘gatekeeper’ for the wider society and performing the traditional role of journalism, the media (overall) exist as powerful “instruments of knowledge” that perform the function of providing information to the masses in a public sphere, where issues may be discussed, justified and contested (Scannell, 1995, p. 17). Evidently, media workers play a pivotal role in our society; however, their status in the realm of professions is not definite. Although the above emphasize the predicament at the heart of ...