Page - 244 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 3:2

244 | www.limina-graz.eu Chiara Zuanni | Heritage in a digital world object or theme, to the conversations and community-building aspects of social media platforms. Researchers have explored ways of collecting, ana- lysing, and evaluating participatory practices and digital engagement (e. g. in the case of social media, cf. Giaccardi 2012; Villaespesa 2013; Villaespesa 2015; Zuanni 2017b), and it has been argued that user responses to museum objects can constitute “unintended collaborations” expanding an object’s life into the digital sphere (Zuanni 2017a). If in the early 2010s there was an enthusiasm for the possibilities of digital engagement, through social media communications, storytelling, gamifi- cation, and participatory practices, during the last decade, less naïve and more critical perspectives on these digital approaches have emerged. On the one hand, the difficulties of developing significant and successful digital engagement have become clearer, as well as the need of understanding the respective roles and boundaries of marketing, education, and engagement. On the other hand, museums are inevitably entangled in the controversies and politics of the Web 2.0: coherency and consistency with their mission as well as a duty of care towards their staff and their audiences is therefore paramount for the future development of their digital engagement strate- gies. Thus, there is an increasing attention on the ethical aspects of work- ing with heritage audiences data (Kidd/Cardiff 2017; Richardson 2018), as well as the positioning and use of heritage content in the digital sphere. Similarly, while there is a broad and growing literature framing the expe- riences and understanding of heritage audiences offline, there is not yet a comparable understanding of online experiences. In museum and herit- age audience research, from a theoretical perspective, scholars have been concerned with the understanding of museum learning, meaning-making, and experiences. Constructive approaches and qualitative methods have been widely explored since the late 1990s. For example, Falk and Dierk- ing explored visitors’ experiences in museums and meaning-making pro- cesses (1992; 1995; 2000; 2007; 2009; 2013). They suggested a “contextual model of learning”, recognizing that “learning is influenced by three overlapping contexts: the personal, the sociocultural, and the physical. Learning can be conceptualized as the integration and interaction of these three contexts” (Falk/Dierking 2000, 13). While there is a broad literature framing the experiences of heritage audiences offline, there is not yet a comparable understanding of online experiences.