Open AccessMapping Europe
Author(s) -
Mari Pajala
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
view
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2213-0969
DOI - 10.18146/2213-0969.2012.jethc013
Subject(s) - contest , symbol (formal) , representation (politics) , politics , period (music) , western europe , key (lock) , cartography , political science , history , geography , economy , european union , art , aesthetics , computer science , law , computer security , economics , economic policy , business , programming language
The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) offers a unique viewpoint to the waysEurope has been imagined on television from the 1950s to the present. Thispaper looks at the use of a key visual symbol for Europe, the European map,to outline the history of the ESC’s representation of Europe. Whilst theEuropean map was rarely used during the rst decades of the ESC, it became acentral visual element of the show in the 1990s, a period of great politicalchange in Europe. Since then, the ESC maps have pictured an ever wideningimage of Europe, gradually moving towards a dynamic, moving image of Europeand nally, dispensing with a coherent map of Europe altogether.