The story of an ephemeral archive : the politics of preservation of and access to Télé Liban's archive

Abstract

This thesis develops a critical perspective on the dynamics of preservation of and accessibility to the Télé Liban’s archive. The national Lebanese television’s archive has nearly 60 years of Lebanese political, cultural, social history. Much of it has been neglected, lost, stolen and sold in the lack of formal policy. With the absence of an official Lebanese history book and the multiple historical narratives created after fifteen years of the civil war, the Télé Liban’s archive offers valuable material that would help visually bridge the past with the present. Furthermore, this rich archive would highlight the role of television in the historical and ideological making of the Lebanese nation. I draw on critical factors that influence the process of archiving, preservation, and access. The Lebanese civil war and its consequences is a major criterion in studying the mechanics of archiving, the politics of preservation of and the dynamics of access to Télé Liban’s archive. Although this archive is significant for Lebanese memory, identity and history and his state of disarray today will affect on losing many keys to understanding the past; an interpretation of the social, political and economic factors that shaped the content of this archive is essential for an objective framework and perspective on this historical evidence. Taking into account the various forces and institutions that created this archive in the 1960s, controlled it during the war, and continue to monopolize it to this day, the purpose of this study is to examine the power embodied within in this archive. Power(s) during the civil war produced a subjective political process of knowledge; militia control over television, funders, external interests, censorship and the changing ideologies of the Lebanese state are the factors that structured, created and subverted Télé Liban's archive. At stake in this project is what is remembered and how is it remembered. The marginalization