Split Signals: Television and Politics in the Soviet Union (Communication and Society) [Paperback]

Ellen Mickiewicz (Author)

Book Description

Series: Communication and Society | Publication Date: May 17, 1990

Television has changed drastically in the Soviet Union over the last three decades. In 1960, only five percent of the population had access to TV, but now the viewing population has reached near total saturation. Today's main source of information in the USSR, television has become Mikhail Gorbachev's most powerful instrument for paving the way for major reform.
Containing a wealth of interviews with major Soviet and American media figures and fascinating descriptions of Soviet TV shows, Ellen Mickiewicz's wide-ranging, vividly written volume compares over one hundred hours of Soviet and American television, covering programs broadcast during both the Chernenko and Gorbachev governments. Mickiewicz describes the enormous significance and popularity of news programs and discusses how Soviet journalists work in the United States. Offering a fascinating depiction of the world seen on Soviet TV, she also explores the changes in programming that have occurred as a result of glasnost.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

More than nine-tenths of Soviet citizens have TV sets in their home. The state-controlled television monopoly has created a mass viewing public that scarcely existed a scant 25 years ago. But if the Soviet media sees its primary mission as molding obedient subjects, it has failed on at least two counts, according to Mickiewicz, author of Media and the Russian Public. First, television viewers in the U.S.S.R. have become impatient with the tempo of domestic reform, hungry for multiple viewpoints, virtually obsessed with news about America. Second, while television has helped assimilate national minorities by blunting ethnic and linguistic differences, it has fostered a generation of couch-potatoes. In the U.S.S.R., as here, television promotes passive torpor, filling in for reading, hobbies and travel. Mickiewicz includes an exhaustive comparative analysis of Soviet and American news broadcasts. The Russians get fair marks for the scope of their international news coverage.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A scholarly but readable study of television under Chernenko and Gorbachev....Draws illuminating comparisons with American television and will prove very valuable for those studying Soviet-American relations, as well as anyone interested in the Soviet media."--International Affairs

"A good guide to the recent past, but also useful for its descriptions of reality below politics and politically based contention....The thoughts at the end on the possibilities and strains within glasnost are also illuminating."--Intermedia

"Likely to raise eyebrows in the West, especially among those who continue to think of life behind the Iron Curtain as a sort of backwater--but Mickiewicz demonstrates conclusively that there may be, indeed, more to glasnost than many believe."--Kirkus Reviews

"With systematic analysis of the content of television programs, interviews with media people, extensive use of Soviet sources, and fascinating material comparing Soviet and American cases, Mickiewicz has produced the first study of television in the Soviet Union."--Zbigniew Brzezinski

"Mickiewicz, America's foremost student of Soviet media, has conducted a detailed exploration in terra incognita and returned with fascinating, useful, and timely insights....Split Signals makes it possible to appreciate the impact of glasnost on television and, in turn, of television on perestroika--and does it in a readable and comprehensive manner."--Ambassador Ralph Earle II

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 17, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195063198
• ISBN-13: 978-0195063196
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,050,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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