1,720,957 research outputs found
Whose Blog Is It Anyway? Seeking the Author in the Formal Features of Travel Blogs
Full text linkAmateur travel blogs hosted on advertising-sponsored websites are generally viewed as credible sources of information about tourist behaviour and destination image, particularly as the content is user-generated. Little is said, however, about the webhost-created content. It is generally assumed that the content and features of a blog reveal a good deal about its author. In the case of travel blogs, however, this can be problematic as both webhosts and authors create content. This paper examines formal and paratextual features of amateur travel blogs to analyse the extent of the contribution made by the webhost and its influence on authorial voice. In particular, it considers titles, links, and advertising in travel blogs hosted on Travelpod, Travelblog, and Bootsnall. It finds that the webhost plays a significant part in positioning the text as a narrative about a particular destination. Furthermore, not all the features of these blogs transfer a sense of who has authored them
From Blogger to Book Author: Examining Self-Publishing, Self-Presentation and Discourse in Travel Blogs
No full textFor publishers, blogs that enjoy a wide readership are new sources of talent that may be developed into potentially bestselling books (Nelson, 2006: 6; Pedersen, 2009: 98; Williams, 2010: 6). This blog-to-book or ‘blook’ phenomenon is best exemplified in publications such as The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl and Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, blog-based books that went on to be cinematised (Pedersen, 2009: 95). Given the success of such publications, and the view that publishing a book is one way to monetise a blog, it is not surprising that for a number of individuals blogging is a logical first step to attracting a publisher’s attention and signing a book deal (Pedersen, 2009: 95; Williams, 2010: 7). Against this background, this paper examines how some travel bloggers who aspire to be traditionally published authors develop their blogs into books. The studies and the successful book deals mentioned earlier suggest that for their authors these travel blogs could possibly be a point of entry into the field of book publishing and facilitate access to recognised publishers of print books. Yet, for those unable to land a lucrative contract, self-publishing services such as Lulu offer a viable alternative to getting one’s name in print (Martin and Tian, 2012: 87). Taking a Goffmanian approach, this study considers the role of self-publishing in the evolution of a travel blog into a print book or e-book and its implications for a travel blogger’s presentation of self as a published author. It also examines travel blogs as narratives of self-presentation, which constantly negotiate discourses of travel and tourism, and finds that publishing a travel blog as a book commercialises these narratives and introduces an element of touristic discourse. Turning a blog into a book therefore has several implications for these bloggers’ presentation of the self as travellers and as published authors
The traveler as author: examining self-presentation and discourse in the (self) published travel blog
Full text link© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. From the perspective of Goffman’s theories of self-presentation, travel blogs can be described as narratives that indicate the different roles occupied by an individual’s online self. A blogger may discursively position the self as a traveler, rather than a tourist, a dichotomy that underpins much critical debate in the area of travel and tourism studies, thus creating tensions within the blog. These tensions are heightened when blogs presented as accounts of travel are published as guidebooks or books that promote tourism. It can be argued that in such cases the act of publishing commercializes these narratives and introduces an element of touristic discourse. Moreover, the choice of either a legacy publisher or a self-publishing service can have implications for how a travel blogger may be presented and perceived as a reputable published author. Against this background, this article explores how travel blogs negotiate the discursive tensions produced as a result of the presentation of various aspects of self, particularly as a published author and as a traveler as opposed to a tourist
Tourism, Travel, and Blogging A discursive analysis of online travel narratives
No full textTravel often inspires the creation of narratives about journeys and destinations, more so with the increasing availability of online platforms, applications for smartphones and tablets, and various other social media technologies. This book examines travel blogs and their associated social media as a form of self-presentation that negotiates the tensions between discourses of travel and tourism. As such, it addresses how contemporary travellers use online platforms to communicate their experiences of journeys and destinations, and how the traveller/tourist dichotomy finds expression in these narratives. Addressing the need for more in-depth analysis through a study of blogs, this exploration of networked narratives of an individual's travel experience considers personal motivations, self-promotion, and self-presentation as key factors in the creation of both personal and commercial travel blogs. As this text applies concepts such as self-presentation and heteroglossia, it will be of interest to both students and scholars of tourism, new media, sociology, cultural studies, and discourse studies
Writing silver travel: Examining the peripheral in senior travel blogs
Full text linkThere is a growing recognition that senior tourism has significant socioeconomic benefits for countries with ageing populations (Bates, 2004; Small, 2003; Vojvodic, 2015) and that the practices of older travellers need further investigation. Seniors are often relegated to the wrong side of the digital divide and, although this gap is rapidly diminishing (McMurtrey, Zeltmann, Downey, & McGaughey, 2011), the critical examination of senior travel bloggers, or silver tourists, and their narratives remains on the peripheries of academic debate. In response to a need for further research into “digital seniors” (Quan-Haase, Martin, & Schreurs, 2016) and their online narratives, this paper explores the concept of the peripheral within the context of senior travel blogs and asks how these narratives both embrace and challenge the notion of core/periphery. To answer this, the paper draws on various theories of travel and social media and aims to offer a nuanced understanding of how these narratives negotiate the persistent tensions between Home and Away, Self and Other, and escape and social connectedness, which concepts and discourses are integral to the writing and practice of silver travel
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Mapping the travel blog : a study of the online travel narrative
Full text linkThis thesis examines the discursive tension between travel and tourism and analyses how narrative techniques negotiate this in travel blogs. This discursive analysis uses various theories of narrative and self-presentation, particularly Bakhtin’s heteroglossia, polyphony, and speech genres, Goffman’s theories of self-presentation, and Graham Dann’s framework for tourist discourse. It finds that the underlying discursive tensions in travel blogs indicate a need for a more flexible approach to defining and analysing this form of communication
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