Inhaltszusammenfassung:
Visualising Engineered Landscape (VEiL) is a landscape archaeology project
based in Aquileia (Italy), which combines traditional methodologies with innovative
digital technologies. Despite growing interest worldwide in Public Archaeology,
in Italy VEiL is a unique example of an archaeological field survey
project developing digital public engagement through Social Media (SM).
VEiL adopts a planned communication strategy, combining different SM
(Twitter, Instagram, Facebook): multiple SM accounts enable customisation of
contents according to the SM specific community, and to adapt communication
patterns on the basis of audience response, matching public understanding and
scientific authenticity. The adopted approach proved successful in reaching a
broad and heterogeneous audience: the analytics show steadily increasing numbers
of followers, ranging from academics to cultural associations, other public
archaeology projects and general public.
Through digital engagement media, VEiL enables non-specialists to look behind
the scenes of a research project. Posts that highlight diachronic landscape
transformations are the ones with the highest interaction, suggesting a growing
interest in local communities for local history: consequently, local landowners
and residents feel more confident in sharing useful information with archaeologists.
Direct, un-mediated interaction with VEiL project members increased
followers also among scholars, attracted by the possibility of sharing reciprocal
expertise in an informal fashion.
This paper describes the SM strategy, adopted by VEiL, of sharing the progress
and results of ongoing research and how it fosters a direct connection between
academics and public.
Public Archaeology