Paper narratives, virtual windows, Goiás: different narrative media in the representation of a world heritage city

Abstract

The object of this paper is the website representation of the XVIII century city of Goiás, designated as a historic site by the United Nations Educational, Scientifics and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in 2001. Considering websites as the newest narrative media for cities, the way Goiás is represented in such media is questioned, in relation to two types of media prior to websites: books and magazines. Thus, this study aims at exploring the potential of websites as a brand new narrative media for cities; especially those cities designated as historic sites. Defining books and magazines as paper narratives and websites as virtual windows, the study begins by the basis that caracterizes those three types of narrative media. After making clear the main distinctive aspects in each of those three, their differences and similarities, and their usefulness for the city narrative and memory, there follows an empirical study focused on Goiás. To achieve that, the study draws on methodological references from the social representation theory, and analytical-descriptive and discourse analysis methods. Based on the empirical analysis results, it concludes for the inter-textual cooperation between the kinds of narrative media covered and suggests other theoretical and methodological developments.