The national character of the television

This small study is based on the book Imaginary Communities by Benedict Anderson. The study considers how, in the post-industrial era, the national selfawareness and identity of citizens are constructed through television and other media. Using the example of news broadcasting with a national frame of the events of the day, as well as the historical narrative in television series that have gained particular popularity among the people (Seventeen Moments of Spring), the article examines how federal TV channels do it. The relevance of such consideration is connected with the awareness of the role of TV as the main national medium, which remains so even in the era of Internet communications. Despite the differences in formats, the analysis revealed properties common to the existence of these spectacles: the relative brevity of the presentation, the discreteness of the narrative with the simultaneous infinity of the narrative, the injection of dramatic content, the management of spectator attention. It is precisely because of these format properties that news releases and historical series, along with political talk shows, are used on Russian federal TV channels as a means of streamlining national self-awareness and maintaining national identity. The article shows that, in countries where television is state-controlled and centralized, its national character acquires not only integrity, but also a special assertiveness and expressiveness. To mobilize society in the crisis moments of international relations, such a character meets the state objectives, but living for a long time in a state of psychological tension is fraught with disruptions for those immersed in the media process. This allows us to speak about the last act of self-destruction of Central Television, which has taken on too much. Keywords: television, nation, identity, mass media, narrative

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