Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introduction: From Franco to Almodóvar
- 1 The Approach to Spanish Drama of the New Golden Age: Remembering, Repeating, Working Through (Cuéntame cómo pasó [Tell Me How It Happened, 2001– ])
- 2 The Classic Serial: Public Service, Literarity, and the Middle-brow (Fortunata y Jacinta [1980] and La Regenta [1995])
- 3 Chronicles of a Village: Francoist Newsreel, Feature Film, and Television (Crónicas de un pueblo [Chronicles of a Village, 1971–4]; Cine de barrio [Neighbourhood Cinema, 1995– ])
- 4 The Urban Sitcom: Community, Consumption, Comedy (Aquí no hay quien viva [No-one Can Live Here, 2003– ])
- 5 Telebasura: Trash, Talk, and Reality (Crónicas marcianas [Martian Chronicles, 1997–2005])
- 6 Almodóvar on Television: Industry, Thematics, Theory
- Conclusion: A Day in the Life of Spanish Television
- Appendices
- Index
1 - The Approach to Spanish Drama of the New Golden Age: Remembering, Repeating, Working Through (Cuéntame cómo pasó [Tell Me How It Happened, 2001– ])
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introduction: From Franco to Almodóvar
- 1 The Approach to Spanish Drama of the New Golden Age: Remembering, Repeating, Working Through (Cuéntame cómo pasó [Tell Me How It Happened, 2001– ])
- 2 The Classic Serial: Public Service, Literarity, and the Middle-brow (Fortunata y Jacinta [1980] and La Regenta [1995])
- 3 Chronicles of a Village: Francoist Newsreel, Feature Film, and Television (Crónicas de un pueblo [Chronicles of a Village, 1971–4]; Cine de barrio [Neighbourhood Cinema, 1995– ])
- 4 The Urban Sitcom: Community, Consumption, Comedy (Aquí no hay quien viva [No-one Can Live Here, 2003– ])
- 5 Telebasura: Trash, Talk, and Reality (Crónicas marcianas [Martian Chronicles, 1997–2005])
- 6 Almodóvar on Television: Industry, Thematics, Theory
- Conclusion: A Day in the Life of Spanish Television
- Appendices
- Index
Summary
Two problematics: art and industry
In its coverage of the newly elected Socialist government's plans for the future (published on March 21, 2004), El País called attention to the “reforma y saneamiento” (“reform and cleaning up”) of television as a priority. Under the heading “¿El fin de la televisión de partido?” (“The End of Party Political Television?”), Rosario G. Gómez reported that President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero had announced that not one more euro would be given from public funds for “la manipulación y la programación basura” (“manipulation and trash programming”). El País offers an apocalyptic sketch of the current state of public broadcasting in Spain:
Zapatero hereda una televisión estatal endeudada como nunca en su historia, una audiencia en constante descenso, una programación infestada de programas basura, con una credibilidad informativa bajo mínimos y una condena por manipulación sobre la mesa. (Gómez, 12)
Zapatero inherits a state television service in deeper debt than ever in its history, an audience in constant decline, a schedule infested with trashy programmes, and a news service whose credibility is below zero and which has charges of manipulation pending.
The Socialists proposed a new Statute for RTVE (aiming to bring back truth, plurality, and objectivity in the media) and the creation of a Consejo de Medios Audiovisuales (“Council of Audiovisual Media”). The founding membership was given as: Academician Emilio Lledó; the philosophers Victoria Camps (a vitriolic critic of telebasura in the pages of El País) and Fernando Savater; Media Studies professor Enrique Bustamante; and the veteran linguist and Academician Fernando Lázaro Carreter, who was to die before the Council met.
The contradictions in the Socialists’ policy are clear. How can the new government's threat to withhold funding from specific content fit with its commitment to plurality and independence? And how can the literary and philosophic skills of the new “Committee of Wise Men” (as it was soon dubbed) address economic and technical problems such as TVE's burden of debt and declining audience? The composition of the Council could hardly have been further from that of the Spanish TV audience and it contained only one specialist in the field.
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- Television in SpainFrom Franco to Almodóvar, pp. 11 - 26Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006