Abstract
The Grand Prix Eurovision has been one of the best-known entertainment programmes in Europe for decades. Nevertheless, it aroused astonishment when the writer told acquaintances that this was a subject of research. When talking about interviews with Grand Prix fans, statements such as: "How can one be interested in something as remote and trivial as the Grand Prix" were quickly heard. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that fan cultures represent a not unimportant research topic for the emerging media society. Admittedly, it is not a question of media education in the narrower sense; the fans of the Grand Prix Eurovision have long since outgrown adolescence. Nevertheless, fan communities are phenomena that are of particular relevance in the context of youth and children's cultures. According to Winter (1997), youth fan worlds play an important role as focal points of cultural differentiation: 'Belonging to a fan far is part of the way young people cope with life in the postmodern era, because in the community of fans, young people can form emotional alliances, pursue extra-curricular activities, realise expressive identity patterns collectively and come to terms with their life situation as adolescents' (Winter 1997, p. 51f.).
