La storia che si ripete. Alcune note sugli archivi della televisione

[Autom. eng. transl.] For many decades, the history of television has occupied a particular space within media studies: just as the small screen was becoming increasingly central, the historiography that it has dealt with has always been at least partly marginal, devoid of a dominant point of view or clear methodologies. Cause and consequence of this confusion has been the limited development, or even the absence, of accessible and complete television archives. On the one hand, historical research was weakened by the difficulty of approaching audiovisual texts as a source; on the other hand, the absence of precise research directions has led to the disappearance of some archives, or to methods of preservation and management of video content guided only by commercial logic. In this chapter we intend to explore the role of the Italian public service archives and commercial networks in strengthening the historical view on television, emphasizing both the main difficulties and some challenges and possible next steps.