Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
European Journal of Communication
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Reijnders, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Watching the Detectives

Inside the Guilty Landscapes of Inspector Morse, Baantjer and Wallander

Stijn Reijnders

University of Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands, s.l.reijnders{at}uva.nl

{blacksquare} Visiting the settings of popular media products has become a growing niche within the tourist market. This article provides a content-based explanation for the popularity of one specific example: the TV detective tour. Three popular television series from different linguistic regions of Europe were analysed, each of which has led to substantial tourist numbers: Inspector Morse (Oxford) , Wallander (Ystad) and Baantjer (Amsterdam). The results show that the tourist attraction of the TV detective programme is due in part to its topophilic character. First, couleur locale is extremely important to the narrative setting of the detective programmes; the narratives elaborate on existing tourist gazes. Second, the narrative development is characterized by a process of investigation and tracking. By taking the tour, viewers can walk in the detective's footsteps and relive the storylines. Finally, the TV detective genre promises the viewer/tourist an acquaintance with the thrilling, `guilty' landscapes of the TV detective. {blacksquare}

Key Words: narrative space • place • popular culture • tourism • TV detective

European Journal of Communication, Vol. 24, No. 2, 165-181 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0267323108101830
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?