Email this article Cultural heritage in the digital ecosystem. Matera 2019 European Capital of Culture
Abstract
The article intends to highlight the role of multi-semiotic representation in the branding of cultural heritage in the digital ecosystem. The case study is represented by the city of Matera in Southern Italy that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993 and is now one of the two 2019 European Capitals of Culture (ECoC) with the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv. Among the reasons why the Italian city was awarded the title at the end of an intense competition were the visionary quality of heritage branding and the strategic use of digital media for citizen engagement. In order to illustrate these winning features, a critical analytic approach to discourse will be applied to key project documents to detect salient linguistic patterns and discursive strategies that encode the socio-cognitive features and core values of Matera 2019’s programme. The analysis will then continue with a selection of verbal and visual materials published on the English version of the Matera 2019 website. The multimodal discourse analysis of these materials will observe how the municipality and its stakeholders have managed to embody a convincing heritage narrative and propose a model of social entrepreneurship in which semiotic choices play a key role in incorporating the city’s vision and values that were first articulated in the documentation supporting its candidacy.
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