The VOICES paper “Lauchhammer – Death in Lusatia: Interpretive Power and Self-Perception in Post-Industrial Communities” by Andy Räder has been accepted for this year’s Annual Conference of the German Society for Media Studies in Paderborn.
The presentation explores how the ARD crime series and its accompanying para-texts (web documentaries, interviews and making-of material) address themes of marginalisation, industrial decline and social exclusion, and how these audiovisual images collide or correspond with the lived experiences of residents in Lauchhammer. Qualitative content analyses of the series and the media formats are combined with on-site interviews to reveal the extent to which fictional and documentary portrayals shape external and self-images of the people. The paper offers a critical reflection on the socio-political relevance of the media’s interpretive power and outlines ways to disrupt dominant narratives of marginalisation.
