FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2024

Daily archives or Archives of the day is a very popular format for accessing specific archive content. What happens when we start to use the “old” daily news as a trigger for intergenerational dialogue? Can we understand each other better through archival footage?

Three generations in particular, Baby Boomers, Generations X and Millennials, are currently meeting each other on Facebook. Each has a different (or none) experience of life under socialism in Czechoslovakia. Across the generations, there are also different views on whether things were better before and where the current society is heading. News events from the 1970s and 1980s evoke a wide range of emotions. Comments on the Czech Television Archive's Facebook page commonly include statements such as "the world was still fine then", but also those that condemn everything from the old days. But does it have to be so black and white?

We think primarily about the relationship between the archival material, the archivist who selects the content, and the audience. Where, how and under what conditions can everyone safely meet and develop these relationships? Can we use a selection of events from the archive, well-aimed questions and sensitively guided discussion to create a space for cultivated dialogue among our viewers? And what can the audience teach us? Why do they watch archival footage? What does it evoke in them? Where, apart from social networks, can we meet and what form to choose? If we open ourselves up to dialogue and resist nothing, we may discover what else archives have to offer society.