Voting in Eurovision: shared tastes or cultural epidemic?

Gatherer, D. (2007) Voting in Eurovision: shared tastes or cultural epidemic? Empirical Text and Culture Research, 3, pp. 72-83.

Abstract

Apparent vote-exchange ("logrolling") in the Eurovision Song Contest has been variously interpreted as a manifestation of political attitudes within Europe, a reflection of regional tastes in pop music, or a social (memetic) epidemic. This paper provides data supporting the third of these three options, also demonstrating that the cultural contagion has now nearly reached saturation. As well as logrolling, ethnic diasporas and the "semi-final effect" are also shown to influence the result of the contest. Reform of the voting system to produce a contest which better rewards musical excellence, without suppressing the mass participation element, is therefore a complex problem.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Eurovision, computer simulation, voting systems, cultural trends, memetics
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gatherer, Dr Derek
• Authors: Gatherer, D.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science; H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences
• Journal Name: Empirical Text and Culture Research
• Publisher: RAM-Verlag
• ISSN: 1617-8912
• First Published: First published in Empirical Text & Culture Research 3:72-83
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with permission of the publisher