The Role of the Albanian Media as Mediator and Creator of Collective Memory

Abstract

Media plays a crucial role in the development and preservation of collective memory. Each social group constructs a memory package from its past, emphasizing its uniqueness and passing it on to future generations. As a creator of social constructs, the media has a primary role in shaping and building collective memory. Monitoring television, online platforms, and social networks reveals that the media aims to create new perspectives on history by constructing framework packages, focusing on diagnosing the past, and building understandings of the present. Another analyzed aspect is the musealization of memory, where the media treats stories as museum objects, illustrating the values of a bygone era. Through the notion of the small screen as a historical eye, television creates its own self-memory. Analysis of memory narratives indicates that nostalgia and drama are essential tools for their marketing. The analysis of this discourse leads us to the idea of "media as part of history."