Ritual Television

As in other southern European countries, television was introduced in Portugal in the second half of the 1950s through the founding of a public broadcasting station. Reception was implemented very gradually over the 1960s, by conspicuously developing collective ways of viewing. In this text, we draw on oral history in order to retrace relevant habits, events and content especially for women, a particular type of audience in the markedly patriarchal context of the Estado Novo dictatorship. Within the context of collective reception of early television in Portugal, we highlight a type of experience that was particularly significant for some female audiences: the reception of Catholic transmissions. The concepts of hegemony, ritual and everyday practices assist in the analysis of such memories. These conspicuous television rituals seemed to regulate female practices, but they could also offer women some opportunities for new experiences.