Untitled - socium.ge

Television, the Internet, and identity 391In short, in a changing world, experiencing the double process of globalizationand localization, collective identities are a stable point of reference, evenif we consider identity as something that is never finished, never being, alwaysbecoming. Moreover, in this context, we find the role of the mass media asactive creators of meaning, and the political aim of some collectivities with astrong cultural identity to consolidate their own media system with a doublestrategy: projecting their local culture as global and, at the same time, reinventingthemselves. This is the case of Euskal Telebista in the Basque Country,Radio Québec in Quebec, or Teilifís na Gaeilge in Ireland, among others.In order to proceed with a grounded analysis of my theoretical approach, Iwill use the development of Catalan Television as an exemplary case ofnational identity building in the field of communication.THE CASE OF CATALAN TELEVISIONThe political process of transformation in Spain, from the dictatorship towarddemocracy between 1975 and 1980, ended with the reform of the centralizedstate and the creation of the “State of the Autonomies,” which reorganized thestate into seventeen autonomous communities. These autonomous communitiesgained control over powers that were in the hands of the central stateduring the dictatorship. Among these powers, the autonomous communitieswon the right to own and operate their own independent television systems asa condition for the extension of democracy and, on the other hand, as a correctiveto the centralized, state-controlled media. In addition, in the so-called“Historical Communities” (Basque Country, Galicia, and Catalonia), thesesystems had the main purpose of strengthening cultural and collective identityand their own language, other than Spanish.During the first years of democracy, there was a long succession of deadlockedresolutions, compromises, and pacts among the major political parties to establishthe media policies to build a legal framework for autonomous television. At thesame time, these parties had serious difficulties in understanding the changes inthe structure of the centralist state. These difficulties provoked the autonomousparliaments of the Basque Country and Catalonia into approving their own televisionsystems, without approved legislation from the central state, and buildingtheir own parallel technical infrastructures as a result of a misunderstanding withcentral government, which owned the technical infrastructure of Spanish televisionand was reticent to lend them, fearing competition, but, more importantly, thefragmentation of the centralist national discourse. Basque Television (ETB) 2began broadcasting on January 1, 1983 and Catalan Television (TVC) inSeptember 1983. These actions constituted the first major institutional change inbroadcasting since the appearance of Spanish Television (TVE) in the 1950s.