Research Paper

Research Paper CM221

Word Count: 2,977

The Power Shift of Our Travel Relations: Blogs

Travel: A definition.

verb /ˈtravəl/
traveled, past participle; traveled, past tense; traveling, present participle; travelled, past participle; travelled, past tense; travelling, present participle; travels, 3rd person singular present

1.              Make a journey, typically of some length or abroad

o                 - the vessel had been traveling from Libya to Ireland

o                 - we traveled thousands of miles

2.              Journey along (a road) or through (a region)

o                 - he traveled the world with the army

3.             Go or be moved from place to place

o                 - a traveling exhibition

///AN INTRODUCTION

Traveling used to be solely about visiting and experiencing another culture, whether that is for business, leisure, or merely just by curiosity. Now, in addition to these factors, traveling is about digital publishing. Alongside the rapid rise of the Internet, travel has become something about sharing; involving desire, envy, and admiration. In modern society, the tools we have integrated into our daily lives subconsciously affect the way we see things, and how we move within different societies and cultures. This in turn has shifted the power from the traditional institutions that instigated and aided with organization of travel for individuals into an individual word of mouth communication via the Internet. The shift from private to public space has affected travelers worldwide and the way they see the world prior to and post vacation experiences. With this said, how can we analyze our identity with the way facets of travel have modernized over the past decade?

The main concept that has risen the triggered interest to travel blogs in general. The power shift and changing of the aura that once surrounded the ideals of travel have modernized and interconnected, creating a more complex, visual, distant view of the way people see the world through the framing of a computer screen. As Benjamin emphasizes in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, authenticity has always been able to be replicated or imitated by man with a multitude of justifications, but in our current day and age, can things be more precisely replicated digitally by any given member of society? (666). A blog is known to be a blank slate for one to produce content and what many media scholars refer to as bricolage: putting words, photographs, other random images, and creating a sense of linkage for an overall portal of a given theme (or sometimes without a theme). Taken as a work of art, as it is an intangible form of consumption, blogs are something that are not only replicated by their definition, but are trusted in terms of content in terms of the flow of ideas in their prospective reality.

As analyzed incessantly by scholars across the globe, one can discover the power the Internet has given the individual; Papacharissi commences a discussion on Internet by stating that the individual is [what is reviving] the public sphere (9). Therefore, with the shift of power and the rise of content on travel blogs and online content across the globe, the classic institutions are being threatened by the power of the individual, and his or her ability to put his or her traveling experiences in a limitless forum for Internet users to absorb at any moment, and in any given place across the globe.

///THE BLOG & IT’S AURA

The rise of the blog (blend of the word web and the word log) came about well before it was actually used excessively and ultimately at a business level. Blogs in the format we recognize were initially born in the 1990’s as a sort of an online diary, exploring the merge of private and public spaces, with the desire to share texts (oftentimes anonymously- which was initially part of it’s appeal). The affect this alone has had on personal identity grew to become an emotional and psychological attachment to privately public sharing via a computer screen linked to an online server (private matters in a private anonymous way but on an online public space). However, blog use seemed to pop up in modern popular culture after the attacks in 2001 in terms of sharing grief and accounts of events, and it is statistically noted that blog use rose from 50 or so existing blogs in 1999 to an estimated 8 million in 2004 (Kaye 28). What is most interesting about the acceleration of blog creations is that by 2005, Kaye explains that about 27% of Internet users in general were said to access blogs and 12% participate by posting to or sharing blog links (128).  General blogging or simply reading blogs is exponentially growing across the mass market and in all age groups, as citizens rapidly become more accustomed to new media and navigating the Internet.

Blog themes vary to be concerning just about anything, and can be deemed private or public depending upon the author’s choice of structure and self references. The structure of a blog majority of the time features updates in chronological order, and more importantly it features one-way in addition to two-way forms of communicating thus users are encouraged to interact whether that be by leaving comments, clicking hyperlinks to other sharing sites. Blog content can be fresh off the press and personal, or it can be reproductions and alterations and opinions based on other entries, sites, or media texts, personalized to satisfy the eye of the blogger. The interactive nature of blogs is what makes them up and coming, the power shift from the institution of travel companies to the individual or small personalized content-creators: anyone can be big in a blog world, even anonymously.

The public-ness of the web became an outlet for expression- whether that be one of personal forms of expression, experimental, or even just random. Papacharissi embeds the idea of spaces and connections between reality and the virtual world online in the essay The Virtual Sphere: The Internet as a Public Sphere; the interactions, projections, and relationships with communication via a screen change the way we feel about seeing the world in our own reality. This idea can be implemented in the domain of travel as it makes modern citizens rethink the way pre-travel plans are set up, and the rhetorical communication performed in order to gain information about travel topics or destinations. The way the world is seen pre and post travel has altered and modernized, and it is because of the seemingly private-ness and public-ness that it appeals to those “who want to reinvent their private and public lives” (Papacharissi 20). The perceptual shifts because of the rise of technology and digital communications highlight the parts of the world that are indeed seen, but via the screen of a computer, and not by the physical presence, and does this affect our identity and our actual presence while traveling?

In specific relation to the domain of travel blogging, it must be compared to it’s rivaling classic institution: the travel agent, the travel guidebook, the mysterious ideology of travel that involves curiosity of comfort and adaptation in a foreign environment. Although it is notable that guidebooks will never be fully become obsolete, as their level on convenience remains high, it is clear that the relationship the traveler has with the guide book has changed through the rise of the Internet, the digital world and travel blogs. In most cases, a digital collective effort is far more relatable for one individual consumer, or even “a single book [is] fundamentally inadequate to describe a phenomenon that is defined by the premise of trans-media storytelling” (Sinnreich 46). The space available in an online domain is infinite: and can cover a plethora (and in a much more convenient manor) of tellings of the world’s treasures in comparison to the information packed in between two linear book covers. These personal, community, and political transformations emphasize the new use for online travel searching, and also the facilitated modes of gaining information thanks to these transformations (Rheingold). Now not only do we see what the pro’s say, but what the average Joe has chosen to share with viewers for the next round of go getters. A guidebook does not have a conversational method, and cannot tell you of his or her experience in a given area. However, since the arrival of Web 2.0, this phenomenon of sharing has yet to slow down.

With the age of the Internet, travel’s aura has suffered severe alterations: the every day traveler may just as well search a city in an online search engine to gain basic or in-depth knowledge of a desired travel destination. Consumers are now hypertextually involved in their online consumption, in this case: travel. As presented in terms of culture, there has been a cultural shift in the fact that what we consume is in process: what we engage in is continuously in changing and being altered (Boyd). A blog follows the same rhythm. Thanks to travel being presented on the Internet platform, the flow of content is across multiple platforms, which enables the travel-destination-curiosity to be met and satisfied on a variety of different levels (Jenkins).

///TRAVEL BLOGGING & COLLABORATIVE JOURNALISM

The participation in blog creation is making the personal and once private public; even if it’s just an opinion or a little blurb from a post-traveler, it is highly desired by the pre-traveler.  Blog content is put on servers for people to see, read, respond, and share. The blogger behind the surface is producing something that virtually anyone could stumble upon. In terms of Bourdieu’s view on social and cultural capital, the social capital is being accumulated through the publication on a virtual interface, where as the cultural varies from not only the blogger, but what the blogger is blogging about.  The class term “the medium is the message” is emphasized in this context due to the fact that in modern culture, one is used to alterations of control, the constant evolutions in technology allow humans to adapt to the controlling powers- in this case the individual. The extension of beings that is placed in an online context is placed “on a new scale that is introduced into [their] affairs by each extension of [themself], or any new technology” (McLuhan 151).

As the popularity of blogs has grown, not only has it underlined a personalized interaction with a digital interface, but also it has proven that the value of collective intelligence. Rarely is a blog not linked to another, they are constantly bouncing back and forth between obtained information and how the blogger chooses to put it out there for the consumers in their network. The top rated travel blog according to BlogRank is currently Gadling.com. Gadling.com is a collaborative blog that features fourteen different bloggers that all post to the same portal, offering feeds of information to the travel-hungry Internet surfer. From each post you can click through the site eventually racking up quite the history having linked similar ideas or “You Might Also Like” titled hyperlinks. With a collaborative nature, the consumer can connect with any of the many bloggers, creating a stronger chance of connection for the fan. Although small, personal travel blogs are always a gem when Googled upon, as the larger news portals have also started luring in bloggers for their travel sections, with a blog-like feel.

A good example of this is larger news corporations and companies associated with travel having thus incorporated travel blogs within their interfaces, adding to the credibility of various bloggers through a larger more well-known portal (example: The Frugal Traveler of New York Times Travel, Krugel). This credibility is key to gaining a more professional outlook and gaining a fan base for the sole purpose of allowing people to see and share the blog. However, it must be noted that not all blog-seeming websites are actually general blogs. Trip Advisor travel site and National Geographic Travel site have separated posts like the structure of a blog, but do not allow the interactive nature like commenting as others do (i.e. commenting). Although this seems out of context as simply a travel website, it is indeed the same idea in a sense of chronological, organized structure; that professionals like unprofessionals can share or express an experience using social media or e-mail. At the core the ideas are still spread through the online global portal and meant to be shared as advice for travelers from the perspective of the blogger. As Rheingold emphasizes, “people and enterprises take up these tools, are changed by them, and change the way others live, work, and play”; this is what concludes the fact that the collective nature of these sets of blogs is the ultimate form of collaborative journalism whether at a professional or personal status level (19).

The ability for professionals and non-professionals who share a common passion to come together on an interface levels out the distribution across sites in their entirety. With this, the site is gaining credibility that the consumer acknowledges, while absorbing information, and ultimately these combined features emphasize a new form of media production. This new form of media production is based on the consumer in a different way than just targeting, it is including them in the travels by allowing them to respond and add on to the content originally posted by the author.

///THE TRAVELER &/OR CONSUMER

Ultimately affected and perhaps more so benefited by the upbringing of travel blogs is the everyday traveler: the one who searches and stumbles upon and absorbs the blog’s content. The audience is a key part in the production of content on blogs, and the audience is generally always in the bloggers minds. If this were not the case, there would not be a share button or comment box at the bottom of every article. The structure of blogs allow for readers to relate to the blog and communicate with the blog. In the specifics of traveling, readers generate feeling while viewing the accumulated travels of others; and emotions such as envy, admiration and desire arise.  These sentiments that are felt towards the author is what keeps the blog world constantly rolling, the wheel of emotions and expression of those emotions, even if simply commenting on a photo or suggesting another task on the list of things to do in a various city. As an example, the crafty urban blog Design*Sponge has a travel section, that is titled “City Guides”. Within this section, different freelancers have contributed their experiences on a variety of vacation experiences for the overall output in the blog’s network. The cities vary from small United States cities to humble towns in Eastern Europe and Asia and each city has anywhere from ten to forty comments. But most interestingly these comments are not just pat-on-the-backs or compliments, they are further suggestions and hyperlinks for additions to the published online article: the comments are also a part of the article for later readers to view as well. In main conjunction with the overall features of blogs, the readers that are also participants tend to be one of the most important parts of creation and density in a blog’s content. Sharing and conversing with other bloggers, readers, and professionals is key.

Travel blogging is particular as it references an experience that one individual replicates into an online template. The feeling may be there when the author writes and describes it but cannot be replicated through intangible forms of media and words. The reader takes these experiences of others and attempts to make it their own- if they indeed take the advice to do the things suggested. The phenomenon is pertinent to the understanding of the relationship between the author and blogger and can very depending on the purpose for reading a particular blog. The connectedness in a virtual world has replaced what used to be known as for simply preparing for a trip. A traveler now connects with others online with numerous tabs to see what others have done, and thus shapes oftentimes their own reality out of this. With a watch and learn template, travel blogs have facilitated and simplified the way human beings prepare and feel about traveling. It is not longer complex, strenuous and as mysterious in a simple text; it is open, suggestive, and especially available. The ultimate form of bricolage and the idea that everything has been done before is important to understand travel blogging, as everyone creates their own experience doing the same thing as millions of other citizens across the globe. This prime sense of replication especially with a topic as common as travel implies the fact that anything has probably been done before, so what then can humans do that is new? Or is a new experience for an individual in his or her own reality enough for satisfaction in the interconnected society in which we live?

///CONCLUSION

As technology advances, our facets of experiencing reality modernize as well. The way humans see the world and the way that one individual experiences any part of the world has altered in terms of preparation, expectations, and relationship to a space while visiting another. Technology has become a part of human nature, and current society tends to depend on what is on the other side of screens in preparation for the next step, and this could affect mankind’s ability to live in the present. With the plethora of experiences that exist in the content of travel blogs, expectations are set high and experiences are constantly compared in a global forum.

The ideologies associated with traveling are slowly changing with the coming generations and their relationship to the online world. Although it may or may not ever replace the actual practice of being physically present in a foreign place (at least not completely yet…), it is changing the way people relate to being temporarily in a foreign environment, and also emphasizes the level of sharing that people participate it, almost to a point of missing out on present identities. The online portals which consumers use to prepare for travels are slowly replacing the original institutions that was thought to be unique and helpful, and these portals also give human beings the opportunity to see things they may never have or never will see actually in their own reality. Can the world of virtual travel and actual travel exist in modern society separately, or is this analyzation of a leisure activity too embedded in the continuously modernizing functioning of human lifestyle?

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