ABSTRACT

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) represents an important resource for both strengthening community identities and sustainable community development. In the last decades, the Internet has become a fundamental means of promoting ICH. The objective of our research was to find out what was it that the local authorities have chosen to promote on their websites in relation with local ICH in Făgăraș Country, Romania. Based on a content analysis, we identified and quantified all the data related to ICH on the administrative sites of 16 town halls in the area. We also compared the online data with those discovered in a previous field research in which we had inventoried the ICH local resources. Our results show that online communication about ICH lacks a coherent strategy, reflecting both poor knowledge of international policies on the intangible cultural heritage at the level of local administrations and an insufficient use of the wealth of local cultural resources in their online communication on their official websites.

Keywords: Intangible cultural heritage, online communication, official websites, Făgăraș Country.

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