Televised Pictures of Human Space Flight: Live Broadcasting Propagand in the 1960s Soviet Union

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26770064
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Art at large
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Kameda Masumi 東京大学, 大学院人文社会系研究科(文学部), 助教 (70726679)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: プロパガンダ / 冷戦研究 / ソ連文化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this study is to investigate the representations of live images of Soviet cosmonauts of the early sixties, a period which saw the beginning of the “Soviet Cosmovision” propaganda.
During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union broadcasted a series of exciting television images via transnational networks. Of these media events, the most spectacular were undoubtedly the human spaceflight missions. Whereas the U.S. used mostly still images and photographs of American astronauts, the Soviet Union represented their cosmonauts chiefly through live image broadcasts from space. By comparison, the Soviet Union had begun actively propagating live images of cosmonauts in space as early as 1962, and these images were delivered to viewers across the world. This so-called Soviet “Cosmovision” propaganda campaign successfully demonstrated that the Space Race constituted a new form of state-sponsored entertainment.

Free Research Field

表象文化