Valley of the Unaware

Valley of the Unsuspecting was a sarcastic GDR expression for areas in which West television and FM radio were difficult to receive. Specifically, this applied to the area around Greifswald in the northeast of the GDR and the Dresden district , in which terrestrial reception could only take place with great effort .

The residents of these areas were considered poorly informed in the GDR because they could only have access to information from long , medium and short wave as well as from the censored GDR media . Their number made up about 15% of the population of the GDR.

Extent of the area

Representation of the approximate range of the terrestrial ARD television program in the area of the GDR with transmitter locations

The term is mostly equated with the Dresden Elbe valley , and the abbreviation ARD has also been interpreted - also satirically - as "except for Dresden" or "except for Rügen and Dresden". In fact, the “Valley of the Unsuspecting” included not only the Dresden Elbe Valley, but also a larger proportion of Eastern Saxony (especially parts of Upper Lusatia ) and Western Pomerania . All other areas of the GDR were either in the catchment area of the transmitter locations in West Germany or West Berlin .

Effects

A study (Kern and Hainmueller, 2009) based on an evaluation of documents from the GDR State Security came to the conclusion that the population in the areas without reception of West television and radio was less satisfied with the political system than in areas with these media . The authors attribute this to the fact that the western media were primarily used as a source of entertainment (media escapism ), but not to question the GDR regime. The virtual emigration apparently reduced the level of suffering and thereby stabilized the SED regime.

Usage today

The satirical term is still used in allusion for communities or areas of Germany with missing or poorly developed broadband Internet access .

literature

Holger Lutz Kern and Jens Hainmueller . 2009: Opium for the Masses: How Foreign Media Can Stabilize Authoritarian Regimes In: Political Analysis, 17 (4), 377-399.
Hans-Jörg Stiehler : Life without Western television: Studies on media effects and media use in the Dresden region in the 80s (= media studies. Vol. 9). Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-935693-57-5 .

Web links

In the valley of the unsuspecting - West television brand self-made. TV documentary of the MDR from 2005
TV reception in the valley of the unsuspecting. Technical background and explanation of a rather elaborate amateur technology thatenabled(limited) terrestrial reception of western television in the valley of the unsuspecting
The history of the antenna community Burgstädt in the GDR
A representation of the development of television from the "other" Germany - the GDR

Individual evidence

↑ Kern, HL, & Hainmueller, J. (2009). Opium for the masses: How foreign media can stabilize authoritarian regimes. Political Analysis, 17 (4), 377-399.
↑ Mischa Hansel: International Relations in Cyberspace: Power, Institutions and Perception , Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, 2012, ISBN 978-3-658-00227-5 (dissertation)
^ Steffen Fründt: Germans without DSL: Where the digital valley of the clueless lies. In: welt.de . January 27, 2008, accessed October 7, 2018 .

[1] Kern, HL, & Hainmueller, J. (2009). Opium for the masses: How foreign media can stabilize authoritarian regimes. Political Analysis, 17 (4), 377-399.

[2] Mischa Hansel: International Relations in Cyberspace: Power, Institutions and Perception , Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, 2012, ISBN 978-3-658-00227-5 (dissertation)

[welt-1599148-3] Steffen Fründt: Germans without DSL: Where the digital valley of the clueless lies. In: welt.de . January 27, 2008, accessed October 7, 2018 .