The Onset of Normalisation in the Czechoslovak Television

This thesis tackles the onset of normalisation in Czechoslovak Television between 1969-1975. Firstly the author introduces the reader to the subject through the historical context. Above all, the thesis focuses on dramatic changes that affected Czechoslovak Television in that era. Further, the thesis is dedicated to one of main players and representatives of normalisation in Czechoslovak media, general director of Czechoslovak Television Jan Zelenka, who remained in office between years 1969 and 1989. The author uses not only published sources, but also internal documents and databases of Czechoslovak Television and documents from the National Archive. In the analytical part of the thesis the author describes the function and structure of Ideological Thematic Plans which served as a foundation document for the TV broadcasting for one year to the next. Using the Ideological Thematic Plan of 1973 the author analyses their content. The author carries out an in-depth analysis of three TV programmes chosen from the Ideological Thematic Plan of 1973. These programmes represent three different genres - a broadcast targeting the young Through Young Eyes (Mladýma očima), a television series of nine episodes Mother (Matka), and a feature film, And Give My Love to the Swallows (…a pozdravuj vlaštovky)...