The general and the special in expansion of the cultural and educational function of regional television by common and distinctive features of telecasting in Mari El, Mordovia and Chuvashia

During the Soviet period, the expansion of the cultural and educational function of regional television studios was influenced, mainly, by transformations in the political, social and economic life. The television of Mari El, Mordovia and Chuvashia was engaged, first of all, in the explanation of the economic and political tasks set before concrete regions. However, during the work of local television stations, features of national character and regional specifics were considered. In their activities, the television studios of the considered region paid attention to development and preservation of national culture, to inter-ethnic concord. During the Soviet period, improvement of the content of local television programs promoted rapprochement of the cultural level of the country and urban population. Also, the considered television studios were the catalyst of preservation of national culture of the people inhabiting the region. For regional television journalists, one of the priorities was the problem of promotion of cultural wealth of the people of the considered region. The considered television studios actively interacted creatively, mutually enriching the cultures. In the second half of the 1980s, television channels stopped showing cultural and educational programs, which, in the author's opinion, did not influence the activity of the television studios of the considered region seriously, as along with strengthening of national consciousness an interest of the titular nations in their own historical roots, culture and language increased. In the 1990s, the territories of Mari El, Mordovia and Chuvashia adopted laws on the languages, together with Russian recognizing languages of the titular nation as state ones. Realization of the right of the nations to self-determination had an essential impact on the work of the state television channels which began to pay much attention to the development and preservation of inter-ethnic concord and national cultures. In the 2000s, the regional state broadcasting companies were transformed to branches of the All-Russian state broadcasting company, a rigid management structure was constructed. This situation significantly changed the national broadcasting grid: the priority belonged to information broadcasting due to the reduction of programs on the development of national culture. Today the state broadcasting companies of the studied region are engaged in publicizing of events and holidays organized by the national cultural centers and associations, which is certainly not enough. Establishment of a separate national TV channel can become a solution to the problems connected with the variety of national traditions and cultures. Experience of the Chuvash Republic is remarkable in this regard: Chuvashia organizes systematic work on national broadcasting in the region, unlike Mari El and Mordovia. Since December, 2011 the first national television of Chuvashia broadcasts in Chuvashia. Since then the TV channel has become an information source necessary for the inhabitants of the republic; it covers all the aspects of the republic's life.

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