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Czech sites of memory on online travel platforms

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2018

Abstract

In my proposed paper, I will focus on the Czech traditional sites of memory (connected with contemporary history - for example: Terezin, Lidice) in the environment of online platforms for travellers (Tripadvisor, Google Places, local platforms).These platforms are based on the user generated content (especially reviews), that mediate the users' experience of the visited sites. In my research, I prove the thesis, that online intermedial and international environments co-create new shape of national memories.

Digital platforms are important part of media memory ecologies (Andrew Hoskins), where new memory entanglements come into existence. The interface of platforms is designed by the interest of the owner - so the traditional sites of memory gain the new context of the quality of services, offers of hotels or aesthetics of Instagram.

But the traditional realms of the site are partially preserved and quoted in users' reviews. I will describe some aspects of these dynamic environments and processes, in my paper.

The broader context of my research is looking for new forms of relating people to the past and searching for methodological approaches that lead our attention to the making sense of past in the digital environment.