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Study reviews the role of state television in the Spanish Transition.
How long has it taken to complete this research?
I'm not sure if it's been a long or a short time
but it has taken me a few years to write this book.
Obviously,
undertaking this kind of study with the necessary depth of analysis
involves watching the television programmes, first and foremost,
reading what other authors have written on the subject,
what has been published in the press on the programmes concerned,
interviews with people who played an important role at the time.
So the usual work in any scientific investigation,
which in this case has taken several years to complete.
Was state television a driving agent for the Transition?
During the Transition, let's say from 1975 to 1978, 75 to 80, 81 or 82,
it rather depends on the author,
television was the central medium of communication.
It provided Spanish people with both information and entertainment.
So it necessarily played a salient role,
because newspapers and radio had a much lower penetration rate
than television. Therefore, television,
or rather television programmes, are a place where people can
obtain information and where that information can also be discussed.
It forms part of the public arena,
a media-based public arena.
So it inevitably played a major, key role during that period.
To what extent was TVE influenced by political ideology during the Transition?
RTVE is in fact a large corporation.
Although the exact figure has not been established,
it may have in the region of 6,000 employees.
These 6,000 employees, who are scattered across Spain,
span all kinds of occupations in the industry.
This means that management,
as a minor vehicle for the interests of the incumbent government,
or even the interests of the state,
has a number of goals, which it embodies in the programmes it creates,
most notably in news programmes.
But there are plenty of hours to be filled in a television schedule.
And there are many employees. Sometimes they'll share the
political views of the government and sometimes they won't.
This generates a certain degree of flexibility.
Importantly, we should bear in mind that in TVE at that time
there were people who supported the continuation of the Franco regime,
people who wanted to see the reforms that later materialised in the Constitution,
and then there were people who wanted an uncompromising break.
In my opinion, what characterised RTVE was the variety of people who worked there.
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