Travel Journalism and Travel Media

Travel journalism is experiencing a continued period of great change and transition. The economic model of print journalism is increasingly unsustainable in the context of freely accessible, and often user generated, online content. It is in this context that this chapter sets out the aims of this book. Specifically, it outlines the ways in which it seeks to explore how this context of transition is changing the representational characteristics and practices of the travel journalism. That is, how travel journalism represents the world and how technological development and the emergence of new ways of monetizing content are shaping the representational practices and potential of this form of journalism. It outlines the ways in which each chapter addresses aspects of these issues. This discussion is contextualized by a review of existing studies of travel journalism from the field of journalism studies as well as other cognate areas.

The processes by which news is selected—the values that determine the selection of one story over another—have long attracted scholarly interest. In the broader context of exploring journalism’s ‘fourth estate’ function and its claim to hold power to account academics have sought to understand the ideological and financial influences that shape news content. These lines of enquiry have tended to focus almost exclusively on the ‘hard’ news of political reporting, with little consideration being given to the underlying ‘news’ values of other forms of journalism. Whilst other forms of journalism might not be judged and ascribed values based on its political significance in the way that ‘hard’ news is, it is nonetheless the case that other forms of journalism cannot be valueless. This chapter seeks to explore the ‘news’ values of travel journalism produced in British tabloid newspapers. It examines the points of divergence and different in the values that underpin tabloid and broadsheet forms of travel journalism. It considers whether tabloid based travel journalism appears to be constituted by specifically ‘tabloid’ values. In so doing it finds that in some forms of tabloid based travel content use visual images as primary drivers of narrative in ways that are very much in keeping with the fast developing interface between the stylistics of tabloidization and technological possibilities of social media inspired and derived content. Identifying and examining the news values of tabloid travel journalism facilitates further understanding of the cultural influence of this form of journalism as well as its economic power and associations.

The exploration of the representation of ‘others’ in travel journalism is widely acknowledged as a well-established line of academic enquiry (Fursich & Kavoori, 2001). It has led to consideration of the ways in which such representations draw on and resonate with older forms of travel writing (Cocking 2009; Fowler, 2007). The intention of this chapter is to further explore potential ‘circuits’ of representations in contemporary British travel journalism and user generated TripAdvisor reviews on holiday destinations in the Middle East. In so doing, these representational practices are traced from ‘orientalist’ imaginings in nineteenth century British travel writing to their articulation in early tourism marketing and travel journalism on the Middle East. In travel content drawn from current travel journalism and TripAdvisor it finds that whilst there is widespread use of modes of representation that draw from earlier, ‘Arabist’ forms of travel writing, also present are more emergent, ‘open’ forms of representation. In this way it seeks to illustrate the representational trajectories, the spheres of significatory influence that ebb and flow between travel journalism, online reviews and tourism practices.

The discursive strategies of travel journalism have garnered a good deal of academic interest. However, the focus as predominantly been on how Western, particularly British and American, travel journalism discursively constructs its others. What of travel journalism produced in non-western regions of the world? How does are cultural differences represent and how are specific practices of tourism promoted? This chapter explores these lines of enquiry in the context of Malaysian travel journalism. It focuses on online travel content produced in the country’s three largest English language newspapers, the New Straits Times, The Star and the Malay Mail. Consideration is given to the ways in which these newspapers represent tourist destinations, both regional and Western tourist destinations. It finds that whilst established western representational practices tend to predominate, there are instances where distinctly Malaysian modes are deployed. This contributes to an understanding of how Malaysia constructs an image of itself in the context of global tourism. This is also revealing of distinctly Malaysian tourism practices and the ways in which established western discourses of aspiration, luxury, nature and primitivism are refigured for Malaysian readerships.

This concluding chapter builds on existing debates about the generic boundaries of travel journalism, particularly its border with travel journalism, to suggest that as a form of journalism it is becoming ever more varied, hybridized and diffuse. It finds that these possibilities, afforded by advancements in social media platforms, require an interdisciplinary approach to the study of travel journalism. In discussing and summarizing the main findings of each of the preceding chapters it seeks to show how this book has contributed to this endeavour.