This thesis aims to develop an intermodal surf travel writing through the exploration of, and engagement with, Haïti’s coastline. Actor-network-theory (ANT) provides the methodological and theoretical framework to explore and explain how the key topics - surf, travel (Haïti) and writing - are brought into productive conversation through translation across persons, artefacts and ideas as an expanding network. Fieldwork is structured and informed by postmodern ethnography as the primary research method of ANT approaches. The entire coastline of Haïti is explored through four research trips, where potential surfing locations are mapped, bringing together my practices as writer, traveller and surfer, theorised through ANT. Engagement with Haïti operates at two levels: the macro level is the rhythm and cycle of anabasis (moving from coast to interior) and katabasis (interior to coast); and the micro level is the activity of surfing and mapping of surf breaks, offering tropes for writing with surfing in mind. The resultant intermodal writing is also a means though which Haïti is both represented and celebrated. The core areas of study - surf, travel (Haïti) and writing - afford equal status (in correspondence with the methodological framework of ANT), as do the roles of geography, ethnography and writing. My holistic approach to research and writing is guided by the literal definition of both geography (‘writing out the earth’) and ethnography (‘writing out culture’). Both the practice based and discursive elements of the thesis also claim equal status. This research attempts to contribute original work to the subgenre of surf travel writing and its critical discourses, and writing on Haïti - each activity drawing on (and making particular contributions to) geography, and an ethnography that explicitly aims to ‘write out’ and celebrate Haïti’s coastscape (coastal landscape, seascape and culture).

Travel is the stuff of dreams. But its facilitation or impediment is the reality of commerce and governments and their manipulation by marketing and political considerations. This thesis examines how travel journalism can maintain responsibility to a 'private' tourist audience in the 'public' tourism sphere. Travel journalism is not only an under-researched area, but provides an important site to study the role of public interest information for a consumer audience participating in a sometimes culturally and politically dangerous activity. The reporting of travel by mainstream newspapers concentrates on the travel dream, while the tourism industry, described as the largest in the world, receives little scrutiny by society's guardians of democracy. This thesis examines literature from the fields of journalism, sociology and marketing to highlight the private tourist audience desires and the measures that commercial and government travel enterprises employ to reach consumers through public relations influence over journalism entities and practitioners. This study also emphasises the public nature of tourism and the risks it presents to tourists to examine how travel journalism, as a responsible moral practice, should address its audience. A content analysis was conducted on a sample of Australian newspaper travel journalism to provide a description of international travel coverage. More specifically it revealed the characteristics of travel articles that provide public interest information to move the private tourist audience to engage in the public tourism sphere as an active citizenship.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the portrayal of Ethiopia as a destination in a travel report from the newspaper Vagabond. The method used is critical discourse analysis, based on postcolonial theory formation. The focus of the analysis is to examine how Ethiopia and its population are represented in the text. This is done by finding out what descriptions, formulations and concepts are used to entice the reader to travel there. Since I want to investigate how the text differs from other reports on travel destinations in Africa, a comparison is also made with two other texts. The main conclusion that can be drawn from the results is that the text conveys the image of Ethiopia as a different destination where the locals and their way of life are the focus. The text in the report is characterized by stereotypical notions that people in the "third world" live an uncivilized life that contrasts with the "modern West".

Thesis maps travel journalism in Národní listy during the period between 1861 and 1913. It also describes a unique resource of the Národní listy Index, which served as an internal register in the editorial office. Index is stored in the archives of Národní Muzeum. There hasn't been any detailed study concerning the Index up to present time. Thesis compiles 275 travel articles from the years 1863, 1873, 1883, 1891, 1903 and 1913. For the work quantitative and qualitative content analysis were used. Národní listy Index Analysis verified its reliability. Index and its content document the process of professionalization journalism in the 19th century. Current researchers may use Index is a proven source of guidance for preliminary research, media-historical research and bibliography formation. The second part of this thesis maps and describes period travel articles, including an overview list of their authors, list of destinations and a scheme of major thematic lines. Hypotheses were confirmed successfully: travel articles were regular and frequent part of the content of Národní listy. Travel articles were most commonly published as feuilletons. The most significant year of the chosen period was the year 1903 year with highest amount of travel articles published the weakest 1883.

This is a study about how Swedish travel magazines write about tropical islands with a history of colonization. The study investigates how the islands of Mauritius, the Seychelles, Haiti, the Maldives, the Dominican Republic, Aruba, Zanzibar and Guadeloupe are being portrayed in four Swedish travel magazines. Travel articles published in the travel magazines Vagabond, Allt om Resor, Res and Escape 360° during the period January 2004 to December 2009 have been analyzed through critical discourse analysis. The study concludes that the travel magazines tend to idealize and aestheticize the tropical islands. The islands are being presented as paradises on earth. They are described as fairy tales, magical, dreams and as playgrounds for Westerners. The inhabitants of the tropical islands are being judged by how well they attend to the tourists’ needs and wishes. The inhabitants are presented as unreliable, while the tourists are presented as reliable. The inhabitants are also being portrayed as childish, exotic and primitive.  Theories about how old colonial ways of thinking continue to flourish in travel journalism are being used to give depth to the findings of the study.

<p>This is a study about how Swedish travel magazines write about tropical islands with a history of colonization. The study investigates how the islands of Mauritius, the Seychelles, Haiti, the Maldives, the Dominican Republic, Aruba, Zanzibar and Guadeloupe are being portrayed in four Swedish travel magazines.</p><p>Travel articles published in the travel magazines Vagabond, Allt om Resor, Res and Escape 360° during the period January 2004 to December 2009 have been analyzed through critical discourse analysis.</p><p>The study concludes that the travel magazines tend to idealize and aestheticize the tropical islands. The islands are being presented as paradises on earth. They are described as fairy tales, magical, dreams and as playgrounds for Westerners. The inhabitants of the tropical islands are being judged by how well they attend to the tourists’ needs and wishes. The inhabitants are presented as unreliable, while the tourists are presented as reliable. The inhabitants are also being portrayed as childish, exotic and primitive. </p><p>Theories about how old colonial ways of thinking continue to flourish in travel journalism are being used to give depth to the findings of the study.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

The theme of this essay arises from problematic pictures which travel journalism can bring about foreign countries, and in this specific case Mexico. These pictures can be problematic in the way that they can carry colonial elements and form colonial discourses. The main purpose of this study is therefore to investigate the Swedish travel magazines, Vagabond, RES and Allt om resor, and how they portray places and people in the written texts and photographs. This was done with a postcolonial and discourse theoretical framework, whereas empowerment of certain pictures can lead to formation of discourses, myths and stereotypes about places and people in Mexico. The method used to reveal different aspects of the travel reports was semiotic analysis, Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and critical linguistics. These together allowed a closer reading of the texts and the photographs, with regards to the context of the text and the magazine’s development. The analysis was conducted with help of linguistic tools such as transitivity and lexical structure, and a thematic structure consisting of themes such as metropolis Mexico city, Mexico’s hinterland and Mexico’s coast. The result showed on many differences and similarities in the nine travel reports which have been studied, depending on the theme, magazine and publication year. The articles published in the 1980’s and 1990’s focused more on people as Indians and Mexicans which mostly were described by their attributes rather than their actions, and therefore objectified and stereotyped as Indians and cowboys, poor and childish. In articles from the 20th century there has been a shift in focus from people to places, these places were often beaches and the sea, constructing the myth of the relaxing paradise. Sometimes these pictures were combined with the Mayan culture to show a variation of destinations, and to meet new tourism trends such as ethnic and culture tourism.

Title: Values, Desirability and Ideology in CNN Travel -- a Discourse Analysis on Travel Stories Author: Emmi Laine Course: Journalistikvetenskap, Kandidatkurs, H13 J Kand (Bachelor of Journalism, Fall 2013), JMK, Stockholm University, Sweden Aim: The aim is to examine which values and ideologies CNN Travel fulfills in their stories. Method: Qualitative discourse analysis. Summary: This Bachelor ́s thesis asks what is desirable, which are the values of CNN Travel, the major U.S. news corporation CNN ́s online travel site. The question has been answered through a qualitative discourse analysis on 20 chosen travel stories, picked by their relevancy, diversity, and their expressive tone. Due to the limited space and the specific textual method, the analysis was restricted to the editorial texts of these stories. The chosen method was discourse analyst Norman Fairclough ́s model of evaluation, which revealed the explicit and implicit ways the media texts suggest desired characteristics. These linguistic devices took the readers ́ agreement for granted, as they imposed a shared cultural ground with common values, which is a base for a mutual understanding. After identifying the explicit and implicit evaluations, they were organized according to some major discursive themes found in the texts, and finally analyzed in order to expose their underlying values. The results showed how these certain values brought forth certain ideologies, to some extent in keeping with recent research of tourism and travel journalism. As the study has been put into a larger context of related research, the following pages will first explain some larger concepts of discourse analysis, such as representation, cultural stereotypes, ideology and power. A cross-section from older to more contemporary theories in culture studies has been utilized; moving from Edward Said ́s postcolonial classic Orientalism, an example of cultural stereotyping, to the more recent topics of ‘promotion culture’ and consumerism, and tourism researcher John Urry ́s ideas about the consumption of places and the ‘tourist gaze.’ In the end, the study considers what kind of power does travel journalism possess over the represented tourism destinations. Finally, when questioning the travel journalists ́ legitimacy and power to represent the travel destinations, poststructuralist Michel Foucault ́s theory about the ‘regime of truth,’ as well as Antonio Gramsci ́s ideas of ‘hegemony,’ theory of dominance through consent, were discussed and confirmed.

The thesis explores the evolution of Chinese travel journalism since 1978, the year China launched its economic reforms and opened to the international community and examines its role in facilitating social changes. Discussion is based on texts from the print, television and online media. Four case studies illustrate how Chinese media are influenced by the state, the market and readerships. The central argument of this thesis is that Chinese travel journalism has established itself as a recognised genre of popular journalism due to rapid growth in tourism along with market-driven reforms. Travel journalism has developed within the official media (the Party press), negotiated media (commercially oriented) and flexible (online) media. These divisions promote a range of information, advice and discussion available to travellers and tourists. In the case of the official media, the information is framed by concerns to regulate; in the case of the negotiated media, there is more scope for commercial promotions; the flexible online media allows non-professional participation. As such, the development of travel journalism reflects the evolution of Chinese media from a propaganda institution to a modernising media industry, and more recently, to a platform for personal expression and alternative voices. The government support for the development of the tourism market has been a strong spur for the growth of travel journalism, and the discourses of Chinese modernisation are carried through the popularisation of travel as a subject in the media. Chinese travel journalism provides advice on social conduct for travellers, both in domestic and international situations, and it influences national self-perceptions and international outlook. Developing in the broader context of social, economic and cultural changes, travel journalism provides a valuable gauge for the study of transformations in Chinese society and Chinese lifestyles.