Ara Shirinyan

In the past five years Armenian television has finally degenerated. Losing its social significance, television as a mass information medium has transformed into a private-state holding servicing the regime and oligarchs. In this way, “regime TV” was created in Armenia, comprised of public and private TV companies. The so-called “property” of the “independent” TV companies was taken over by the oligarchs on practically voluntary-obligatory bases and now they are trying to recoup the costs by unprecedented trade-advertising actions. We’ll talk later about how all this is viewed by society. It is the regime that gives the right to broadcast, specifically the National Committee, that although it is fulfilling its prime responsibility, that is to say not granting “A1+” a TV license, it however cannot justify its actions. Its only unsuccessful attempt was made by the use of the expression “weakling”.

This claim, however, didn’t meet with the pleasure of the European Court of Human Rights which then fined the Republic of Armenia 30,000 Euros. In addition, this amount was taken from the state budget. That’s to say from the taxpayers who had suffered in the first place by being deprived of the right to watch “A1+”. It is evident, that government officials must develop their ability to speak, write letters and substantiate their arguments in order that Armenia remain clear of punitive measures.

The ability to understand what one is reading would also help. The RoA government categorically failed to grasp the meaning of that paragraph in the European Court’s decision where it talks about the return of “A1+” to the airwaves. Thus, there’s the possibility for more penalties. Instead of announcing a competitive bid the government adopted a decision not to allocate TV frequencies in general until 2010 since the entire TV broadcast system hasn’t been digitalized. It’s clear that a whole host of arguments could have been brought into the issue, even let’s say, “Trees are dying where they stand”.

A curfew on the news

In Armenia, practically all the TV stations are overseen by the regime. As a result one no longer finds helpful information in any of the TV news programs. The same “developments” are covered with all the “news” and these reflect everything possible except reality. One shouldn’t be surprised at this because news in Armenia is created and disseminated for another aim.

The role of TV news is to ensure regulation by the regime, the display of power, to daily remind people that “we can’t be toyed with”. Thus the airwaves became the source of legitimacy for the regime. The Armenian public watches the news to evaluate how the government or the parliamentary majority is taking care of the welfare of the people.

The regime’s technologists are convinced that if there wasn’t any news the people wouldn’t know just how well they are living. So what if reality doesn’t reflect the economic growth rate, the strengthening of the dram, the level of law and order in the country. It’s the news that reflects this instead. In reality, the issue placed before the TV stations is to create a “positive image” of the regime. However, no other structure can defame the regime in such a way as television, which is overseen by the same regime. Exhausting all its reserves of trust, “regime TV” turned to its last ploy – entertain the people to such a level that the common person has ceased to understand what country they actually live in.

Entertainment with a specific meaning

As of January, 2006, due to the efforts of the AGB Nielsen Media Research firm, Armenian TV stations were given the ability to follow program ratings on a daily basis. It turned out that the lower the content level of the program, the greater the viewer audience it attracted. Consequently, it’s no longer important what you broadcast, what’s important is that a majority watch it. From that day on the Armenian TV viewer has enjoyed the delicate fragrance of Latin American soap operas, without suspecting that this engenders television dependence.

Today, our society can tune into 30 soap opera serials across the Armenian TV spectrum. For many, living the lives of the soap opera heroes has become the only way to live. According to the ratings, TV viewers prefer to watch comedy and slapstick programs in addition to the serials. And thus a new type of youthful comic invaded the TV screen. A comic that is ready to ridicule everything just as long as he isn’t given a beating afterwards.

Most of these amusing programs are noteworthy for their crude content; they cross all boundaries of morality and ethics. Is it really necessary that the TV viewer roar with laughter in front of the TV screen? It is the opinion of many that this is what the people demand. In reality, this demand is created and fostered by television itself. This sense of humor, that the TV stations have put into circulation, can perhaps find a suitable outlet within the four walls of a comedy club or within a circle of one’s friends, but not on the airwaves. Anecdotes or jokes make up a subculture that has boundaries of expansion.

(By the way, anecdote in classical Greek means “that which isn’t publicized”). In short, if anecdotes are presented on TV, it can no longer be considered TV. Almost all Armenian TV stations are entertainment based and are engaged in fierce competition for ratings. In first place is Armenian Public TV which has a strictly underlined commercial direction. Here you’ll find a multitude of commercials, programs that bankrupt the mind and spurious shows. Following are the “Shant” and “Armenia” TV stations. The latter doesn’t accept AGB Nielsen ratings and gets such numbers from another company which naturally shows that “Armenia” is in first place. This neo-capitalist competition is, at the very least, cynical in a country where the bulk of the populace is living on the brink of poverty.

TV stations drive by ratings unavoidably fall to the level of a sawhorse. Tragically, this is the general trend not only for Armenian TV but for global commercial TV in general. The directors of Armenian Public TV justify their actions by stating that taxpayer monies must be spent to satisfy the tastes of the majority. However, in civilized nations, public TV stations face other issues. Their role and significance is set down in PACE documents regarding “public broadcasting”.

The objective of public broadcasting isn’t to satisfy the tastes of the majority but rather to insure universal content. This means to raise the quality of mass programming and to make universally held values accessible to all. There are only a few nations in the world where public TV enjoys the highest ratings. Perhaps it is only the BBC, which sets the standards for the entire world, which enjoys such a spot. In Armenia, however, the entertainment airwaves more than correspond to the objectives of “Regime TV”, which is to divert the viewer from real problems, to mandate an untroubled way of life and to create stereotypes to comprehend reality and thus transform life into an empty, meaningless pastime.

Serials as a weapon of production

The last cry of the Armenian TV stations is the locally produced serials. Ten such serials, which depicted our reality, hit the TV screens in 2008. What do these serials represent? As was expected it was the “settling of criminal scores”, which had become the official genre of post-Soviet cinema. And thus, every day what you have being displayed are obnoxious stories complete with equally repulsive details where it’s hard to decipher who the upstanding hero is since all the characters are criminals.

The city is a den of thieves, the police laughable fools and officials are bribe-takers. Intellectuals are dolts and children are baseless creatures. A drama has been created by the sick imagination of the authors in which the entire content is populated by repulsive criminals, extortion, betrayal, beatings, murder, and burying people alive. And all of this goes unpunished.

The state doesn’t exist; there is no rule of law. There is no civil society and morality is absent. Whose idea was it to broadcast this stuff over the airwaves for months on end? Can anyone measure the damage being inflicted by this? I certainly don’t wish to blame the actors and directors.

They are just doing their job and probably better than ever hoped for by creating credible characters based on real life and imbued with familiar character make-ups. But this work of theirs has no social value. In addition to repulsive scenes, the serials have been injected with hidden advertising (product placement); auto showrooms, exclusive stores, restaurants, hotels, sport schools, entertainment halls and numerous consumer goods whose advertising spots never leave the TV screen Even the texts of the advertising spots have been moved into the dialogue with practically no change with the use of copy/paste.

The impression is created that these goods and services are not intended for average people but for murderers. It is possible to conclude that the actual financiers of serials are the Armenian business elite and the crimes depicted in the serials are episodes lifted from their lives. Does it concern anyone in this country that such serials lead to fear and uncertainty in the society regarding the future and that it inculcates the young generation with models of behavior?

The bulk of our society doesn’t possess a formulated value system and copies this line of conduct. People quickly assimilate the only meaning stemming from these serials - that the only ones to survive in this life are the criminals and super-heroes. If you lack something in this life, snatch it away from someone else. If you don’t like someone, break his head open, kill him. Our reality abounds with many such examples; why shouldn’t we believe the message? The adage, the more entertaining TV becomes, the more dangerous it becomes to walk the streets, isn’t by accident.

Commercial entertainment TV assumes no responsibility in the public eye. Its only problem is how to shock the viewer and make money. It’s the public who pays for all this; by risking to actually appear in that dreadful country whose image is sketched on the TV screen Now let’s talk about the serial, “The Orphans”. The self-rejoicing by Public TV over this serial can be explained by the time period in which the heroes live, the “cold and dark” years of the 1990’s.

And where there exists political demagoguery it becomes futile to speak about aesthetical virtues. Nevertheless, what is the essential notion of the serial? The creators have confessed that they believe that many parents will be struck with pangs of conscience by watching the serial, and that they’ll take back their children from the orphanages. What’s so wrong with this, it would seem. Let’s put aside for the moment that is with this mentality that the fault of the government for being unable to ensure humane conditions for these forsaken children is heaped upon the parents as a social flaw. But the problem lies elsewhere.

The essential problem of kids reared in orphanages is exactly compassion which they can’t liberate themselves of all throughout their life. By inciting compassion towards kids growing up in orphanages, the serial formulates stereotypes in the minds of people which makes their future integration into society all that more difficult. If “H1” were to ever produce a documentary, not fictionalized, film on this subject, it might just understand this. Any child who has left the orphanage would say the same thing.

Airwaves watched over by the regime

On various occasions the viewing audience has expressed its dissatisfaction regarding Armenian TV stations. Reporters, critics, teachers and the intelligentsia have repeatedly warned that the slang language and mentality of the criminal world overfilling the TV screens is having a negative effect on the behavior of adolescents. Even the Ministry of the Interior was obliged to express its dismay regarding the depictions of the police in the serials. The press has already that when asked a majority of school children say that they want to become “thieves” and “police”. In terms of doing good deeds the kids answered they want to “construct elite buildings”.

During parliamentary hearings the directors of TV stations openly stated that serials only reflect life as it exists. And non-standardized language is not employed in crime serials but also in the National Assembly. In short, don’t cast stones. No one dared to suggest steps to take care of the issue because they all understand that you can’t regulate that which is already regulated from above.

The regime has already executed the deal, handing the TV viewer a lacerated bunch of private stations in place of total political supervision. How is it possible that TV continues to operate in this manner when there is such discontentment on behalf of the majority of the public? The reason is the mentality of this regime. A country that is overseen by a regime employing a colony mindset and criminal laws couldn’t possibly have any other type of TV.

Neither the regime nor the oligarchs are interested in the formation of a civil society, because such a development poses a threat to their existence. Citizens who are informed and free of a dependence on TV and who thus can think for themselves will defend their rights and will not tolerate the arbitrary actions of the regime, the dishonesty of producers and more importantly will not put up with such TV and this regime.