Remediation and remembrance: “Dancing Auschwitz†Collective Memory and New Media
Journal Title: ESSACHESS - Journal for Communication Studies - Year 2012, Vol 5, Issue 2
Abstract
A new generation is changing the face of Holocaust remembrance, a morally laden subject that continues to captivate public imagination, spark controversy and generate dialogue, now by using social media. In summer 2010, controversy erupted worldwide as “Dancing Auschwitz,†a YouTube video of a Jewish family dancing at various Holocaust remembrance sites, defied the existing cultural narrative through a novel expression of Holocaust remembrance. The artifact exemplifies the larger debate whether technology aids memory as successfully as we believe or whether by freeing us from the burden encourages us to forget. We argue that virtual memorials can fulfill roles left vacant by more traditional forms of remembrance and open new avenues of communication and expression that allow participants, especially Germans and Jews, to re-mediate their identities. Virtual memorials can enhance the remembrance experience by cultivating fluid, interactive and creative spaces that encourage high degrees of participation, collaboration and self-expression. In the case study, YouTube users implemented three forms of remediation: role switching, redefinition, and disassociation. Despite the obstacles (e.g., destructive identity forces, commercial culture, and temporalities of social media trends), technology ultimately act as an aid to humanity’s deep-seated desire to remember.
Authors and Affiliations
Paige L. GIBSON| Department of Communication, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA, Steve JONES| Professor, Department of Communication, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP9112
- DOI -
- Views 410
- Downloads 27
Words and figures. A socio-semiotic approach of the electoral poster
We intend to analyze the triple articulation visual/verbal/figures in the visual frame of the contemporary culture. Our corpus is constituted by electoral messages (outdoors) from the last Romanian Parliamentary electi...
Ni putes ni soumises. Media and women with other gender?
Since 2000, new women's movements emerge like Ni putes ni soumises (NPNS) who give a new approach to activism: not the one on feminists in the classical sense of the term with the connotations it carries, but women carr...
“Send pretty girls to the White Houseâ€: the role of gender in journalists – politicians’ interactions
Interrelations between politics and media are often described as a powerplay, a rumba or even a danse macabre, and the key question of political communication is “who leads and who follows†in the “power-play betwe...
The sign multimedia as custom: interpretation of a mess of circumstances
This study tries hard to bring to light the model of production of specific sense (direction) in the dimension "usage" of the multimedia sign, by basing itself on narratives scénistiques visiteurs\utilisateurs of...
Characteristics and Stakes of the new residential economy in the Saly Portudal Resort and the Petite Côte in Senegal
Saly Portudal resort and Petite Côte are more and more privileged destinations for Europeans and French people, especially elderly. They tend to become permanent resident. They only go back to Europe just to have...