Media Engagements and Belfast Updates

Hello subscribers,

Much sooner than with the previous Newsletter (and the one before that), I’m sending out another one – even though I do not yet have a new post on the DT Blog to alert you to.

But what I do have to report are two recent media engagements of mine. The more important and far better one is this podcast I did with the IDM.

If I may say so myself, I think this is quite possibly the best interview I’ve given to date. There was plenty of time, and the editing has been very light, so I was able to explain a lot about dark tourism and clarify a few prejudices, things that so often get portrayed so wrongly in the media (e.g. that DT is voyeuristic, exploitative or dangerous, when most of it isn’t any of that in actual fact). There is a certain focus on the Danube region/Eastern Europe, naturally, given the institute’s area of focus. Do have a listen … if you can spare the nearly half an hour. It is in English so should be accessible to all. The title the podcast was given (“Thrill or Chill”) is unfortunately a bit off the mark (given that I explain at length that DT is neither of that), but I guess it was chosen not by the interviewer, who will have known better, but by some superior.
  

And then there was a piece for the Austrian state TV station ORF, and hence in German, made for the “ZIB Magazin” short programme (ZIB, standing for “Zeit im Bild”, is the main Austrian news programme). Just how short it would be I hadn’t anticipated. So when I was sent the link to watch it online I was quite surprised to find that the piece was a mere two minutes or so. Unfortunately the link remained active for only a week, and that has long passed. I hadn’t been aware that the online availability would be that short-lived.

The shooting session for the programme at the Vienna Central Cemetery took about two hours and the usable material filmed should have been about an hour in total. Why they took so much when only a couple of minutes would make it into the programme is a mystery to me. But what’s more annoying than the extreme editing down, however, was the title the piece was given: “Katastrophentourismus – Nervenkitzel statt Entspannung” (my translation: ‘disaster tourism – thrill-seeking instead of relaxation’). These media people just can’t help it. It has to be sensationalized. Even though the title so didn’t fit with what I actually had to say in the interview. The examples should have spoken for themselves. Who visits Auschwitz to seek a thrill from it?!? I’ve never encountered that at any Holocaust memorial site. But never mind. The programme is no longer viewable anyway.
  

Finally, I’ve made little progress with work for my main website (much delayed for the same reasons as before, i.e. mostly those health issues, which are progressively getting worse … but I’ll spare you the details). However, I did manage to upload some important updates for two Belfast chapters: the one about the “Titanic Quarter” and the one about the “Titanic Belfast Experience” (pictured in the photo above). Do go and take a look. They both also have new/updated photo galleries.
  

But so much for this time.

Best wishes,

Peter