Preliminary communication
Ö3 PRESENTS HALLOWEEN: POSTMODERN TRADITIONAL CULTURE BETWEEN FM AND WEB
Oliver Haid
; Institut für Volkskunde, Innsbruck, Austria
Abstract
The present article focuses on the recently introduced festival of Halloween in many parts of Europe that had hardly ever taken notice of America's most famous holiday and very important identity marker. Based on Austrian material, the author tries to explain its
booming as a party phenomenon and a children’s collecting custom emphasizing especially aspects of media coverage. The role of Ö3, Austria's number one radio station, its involvement in processes of inter-active opinion making is highlighted by the use of evidence taken from news reports, advertising and one-line postings. Especially interesting for the reader is probably the analysis and selective quotation of more than two hundred postings on the web site of this radio station from October 2000. The anonymous,
however clearly teenaged, writers of these texts addressed various aspects of Halloween in Austria, including issues of Anti Americanism, secularization and urban culture. Their statements, frequently offering not more than the reproduction of prefabricated opinions and stereotypes, show the social and cultural relations, the festival is contextualized within Austrian society and highlight subliminal generational conflicts.
Keywords
Halloween; media; internet; Austria
Hrčak ID:
26050
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2004.
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