[Commlist] CfP: Tele-Archives. Reframing Archival Research on Local Televisions Across Europe

*Call for Papers: Cinergie. Il cinema e le altre arti no. 28*
*Tele-Archives. Reframing Archival Research on Local Televisions Across 
Europe*
**
ed. by Giulia Crisanti (Sapienza Università di Roma), Myriam Mereu 
(Università degli Studi di Cagliari), Emiliano Rossi (Università di 
Bologna) and Paola Zeni (Università degli Studi di Torino)
***Proposals deadline: January 10, 2025***
Details here _https://site.unibo.it/atlas/en/publication 
<https://site.unibo.it/atlas/en/publication>_ and here 
_https://cinergie.unibo.it/announcement/view/660 
<https://cinergie.unibo.it/announcement/view/660>_
***
This special issue of «Cinergie» − developed within the scope of the 
PRIN 2020 research project ATLas - Atlante delle Televisioni Locali 
(Atlas of Local Televisions, _https://site.unibo.it/atlas/en 
<https://site.unibo.it/atlas/en>_) − intends to bring together a wide 
variety of contributions on local broadcasting in Europe, with a 
particular focus on the several ways in which archival research can 
delve into the evolution of media systems in different contexts, as well 
as investigate unexplored narratives in European television history. The 
existing literature has largely relied on memorialist accounts to assess 
the peculiarities of local TV stations. A thorough and systemic 
historical inquiry of Europe’s commercial broadcasting is however still 
lacking. The CFP consequently solicits contributions addressing the many 
single stories of local broadcasters in relation to more general 
interpretations of the progressive commercialization of European television.
Italy provides an interesting case study to address the evolution 
undertaken during the 1980s by European televisions, but it also shows 
the need for a transnational and/or comparative analysis. Between 1974 
and 1976, a series of rulings issued by the National Constitutional 
Court brought about a revolution in the country’s television landscape. 
Together with the 1975 reform of national PSB Rai, the Court provisions 
opened a new era in the history of Italian broadcasting, ending State’s 
monopoly and leading the way towards the growth of Italian local and 
private televisions. The ensuing commercialisation of Italian 
broadcasting was however connected to and sustained by larger historical 
transformations which cannot be confined within the nation’s 
geographical or political borders: technological innovations in 
broadcasting, increased market liberalisation, progressive segmentation 
of consumer habits all contributed to transnationally challenge the 
hitherto dominant European television paradigm, prompting a greater 
influence of American commercial television models and programs, as well 
as a variety of local and national responses. The eventual introduction, 
in 1989, of the European directive known as “Television without 
Frontiers” testifies to the strong relation between larger trends 
impacting media landscapes all across the continent and the evolution of 
European television broadcasting in the 1980s.
Since they represent one of the most valuable resources to study the 
past, archives can be framed from a wide variety of interdisciplinary 
perspectives, including comparative and cross-media scholarly points of 
view. Lack of access to audiovisual repositories and documentary sources 
referring to private TV stations has undermined a full understanding of 
their role and legacy. Accordingly, the recurrent absence of 
institutional databases demands a “patchwork” approach, fostering the 
adoption of an inter-textual outlook connecting the experience of local 
televisions with other media outlets such as newspapers, radio stations, 
cinema, etc. Such an integration of sources entails new strategies to 
collect, preserve and transmit audiovisual heritage, while providing 
fruitful insights into the history of broader European socio-economic 
and cultural developments throughout the 1980s.
Following the “archival turn” undertaken in film, media and television 
studies, this special issue of «Cinergie» will gather contributions that 
deal with − but are not strictly limited to − the following topics and 
issues:
*the role of formal and informal TV and media archives in shaping 
private and public memories, cultures and identities, especially in 
Europe and with reference to different territorial scales (i.e. 
transnational, national, regional, local);
*the rediscovery of hidden TV and media archives, including forgotten or 
marginalised figures, stories, TV programmes, genres and schedules;
*the resort to audiovisual archive to shed light on TV production and 
distribution patterns, with a special focus on industrial details;
*the integration, in addition to audiovisual records, of different 
archival sources (i.e. sound recordings, images, scripts, interviews), 
the role played by grey archives (i.e. those storing administrative 
deeds and business data) and the enhancement of oral history practices 
within academic research on local broadcasting;
*the technical, editorial and commercial structure of TV archives: data 
treatment, sampling criteria, content hierarchies and discovery tools;
*academic, historical and public uses of archives: methodological and 
theoretical standpoints, limits and problems of database access between 
analogical and digital repositories;
*data circulation and dissemination strategies, with a special focus on 
local TV and commercial broadcasting;
*the evolution and survival of media archives: policies, open science 
practices, IP protection, alternative approaches towards the 
revitalisation of cultural heritage.
*Please send a 300/500-word abstract and a short bio (50-100 words, in 
English) to Giulia Crisanti and Paola Zeni at 
giulia[dot]crisanti[at]uniroma1[dot]it and 
paola[dot]zeni[at]unito[dot]it by January 10, 2025* – [subject: Cinergie 
Application + name surname author(s)].
Notification of acceptance will be sent by January 31, 2025.
If the proposal is accepted, the author(s) will be asked to submit the 
full article by May 20, 2025.
Articles (in English or Italian) must not exceed 6,000 words and may 
include images, clips, and links for illustrative purposes. Please 
provide proper credits, permissions, and copyright information to ensure 
that images, clips, and links are copyright-free and can be published.
Contributions will undergo a double-blind peer-review.
Expected publication: December 2025.

«Cinergie» is an open-access journal and no publishing costs will be 
charged to authors.
Please note that the 16th edition of Media Mutations international 
conference - Unlocking Television Archives in the Digital Era 
(_https://site.unibo.it/atlas/en/final-conference 
<https://site.unibo.it/atlas/en/final-conference>_), to be held in 
Bologna in May 26-27, 2025, will focus on some of the topics covered by 
the issue; cross-applications are welcome.
-
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