Interaction and dispute of the operational, commercial and patrimonial perspectives in the audiovisual archive of Televisión Pública

Abstract

The objective of this article is to study the history of the audiovisual heritage of Televisión Pública (LS 82 TV Canal 7) in relation to its different conceptualizations based on its operational, commercial and historical nature. To do this, we will start from the premise that every archive works as a device whose selection, structuring, destruction and oblivion mechanisms originate as a product of the interaction between institutional powers and the forces that come from the social field. To carry out the proposed objective we will divide the work into four sections. In the first place, we will analyze the historical development of television audiovisual archives from their subordination to the television industry, the disagreements with archival science, and the redefinition that takes place in the contemporary context. In the second instance, we will examine the conformation of the Televisión Pública archive based on the operational and documentary assessment of its heritage. Likewise, we will investigate its fragmentary nature and the disputes over its preservation. Then, we will explore the conditions that made possible the founding of the Archivo Histórico de RTA and the implications of the institutionalization of a new consignment order that marked the passage from the private to the public. Additionally, we will evaluate the reasons that made it difficult to achieve the objectives established in its regulations. Finally, we will investigate the creation of the Archivo Prisma web platform around the articulation of a critical editorial line capable of revealing the logic and mechanisms of archiving, as well as reflecting on the incidence of political fluctuations that caused its closure and subsequent opening.