 Most of the history of mentalities in the 20th Century is marked by the omnipresence of television. The history of television, the stories "it" has told us, its good and bad memories are a part of our individual and collective heritage. It is also the fuel for many conversations and the communicational link between other media. This effect is of utmost importance especially for those countries (like Portugal) that for decades have only had access to one or two state channels. The analysis of the good and bad economic, social, cultural and political consequences of the televised massification in the last 40 years is complex. Today, the constant zapping of the spectators does not occur specifically due to programmatic reasons. Publicity intervals are too long and the ratings war is overlapped by publicity messages that bombard our sets. The quality of the programs is very bad on the so called prime time and this is one of the main reasons to stop all the cooperation mantained with the state television network, between 1983 and 1991. |