The city as spectacle. Territorial marketing, the internet and the tourist attraction of Santiago de Compostela. Success or failure?
Yolanda García (ygarciava@uoc.edu)
Master's Degree in the Information Society, UOC
Social researcher with GIST-IDEGA, University of Santiago de Compostela
The new information and communication technologies (ICTs) allow us to disseminate and revalue local culture in the information society through computer-mediated communication. With the emergence of ICTs and social access to information in web format, audiovisual production is now being developed as a tool for marketing and for attracting the "eye of public opinion". Today's cities compete to attract visitors and investors and to build a "brand image" that differentiates them from competitors. Local culture and community identities, local traditions, music, gastronomy, lifestyles, etc., can become digital products offered on a global market, via web portals and e-commerce systems as territorial marketing and communication strategies. Thus, ICTs can become tools to aid communication, helping to create a new audiovisual culture and strengthen the cultural identity of towns and cities. This also means that audiovisual productions are used as spectacles and to create consumer needs based on aesthetics. This article introduces theoretical and conceptual bases that allow for the establishment of links between ICTs, audiovisual culture and the forming of local-level cultural economies. It also analyses the case seen in Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, north-west Spain.
ICTs, audiovisual culture, computer-mediated communication, cultural economy, territorial marketing
Submission date:
January 2009
Accepted in:
February 2009
Published in:
April 2009