The word tourist is loaded with negativity, especially, as MacCannell and Urry argue, for those of us that travel ourselves. In this exploration, the author takes a deep dive into the primary theories of MacCannell's search for authenticity and Urry's tourist gaze while recounting a series of journeys throughout Cambodia through her own Western epistomologic lens while also considering feminist, postcolonialist and decolonialist extensions and counterarguments. The purpose of this paper is to critique the portrayal of tourists as the monolithic characters created by MacCannell and Urry through an exploration of the author's experience and offer varying viewpoints and considerations that are applicable to the theorists and not. The conclusion is a call to action for further research where the tourist and destination intertwine.

This thesis shows that illicit drug consumers in Vietnam who administer product via injection are vulnerable actors in a paradoxical global/glocal phenomenon rooted in historical complexities of globalisation. Therefore, responsibility for HIV risks should be shifted upstream from the level of individuals toward institutional processes that manufacture environments of harm. At the global level, the UN Milennium Development Goals do not provide the required level of leadership on HIV prevention for drug injectors. Association between globalisation, opiates and blood-born disease in Vietnam is not new and is inseparable from historical transportation, migration and trade processes. As a key locale in the Cold War, after 1975, and 1979 in particular, Vietnam was 'at distance' from increasing intra-regional trade flows across its western frontiers and northern border. As a consequence, it was hermetically sealed to nearby HIV sub-epidemics unfolding among heroin cons umers. A latent HIV risk environment awaited Vietnam should geopolitical grievances be resolved and it became re-integrated among Mekong sub-regional flows. Neo-liberal financial flows returned to Vietnam in 1993 and the Mekong was spanned in 1994. In 1995 it normalised relations with the United States, joined ASEAN and announced the resurrection of transportation linkages across the northern border with China. Mid-decade, its borders were made more porous at the same time as local opium production was reduced as part of the UN global programme against drugs. Exploiting enhanced trans-boundary mobilities intended for goods, opiate traffickers quickly transformed Vietnam into a transit nation and a marke for high-quality heroin well suited to a youthful population experiencing socio-economic change including new consumerism. Following traditional pathways, a radical transformation in the fluidity of drug consumption environs ensued, enabling more widespread and efficient flows of blood across complex boundari es. Analysis reveals that a spatio-temporal confluence of structural factors has created conditions which enabled this process. These factors are overlapping and they range from global influences, such as the collapse of the USSR, to micro-economic reform such as privatisation and modernisation of the domestic pharmaceutical sector. The transformation in opiate consumption from injecting opium to heroin injecting occurred faster than expert-driven prevention systems responded, even in time and space where this was most forseeable. Although the opiate transformation was highly predictable, there has been a time-lag of almost a decade between risk transformations and policy responses equated with harm reduction principles. The thesis shows that blame for HIV sub-epidemics in Vietnam should not be attributed to vulnerable youths and young adults. Expert-driven economic transition associated with global inegration has manufactured circumstances in which drug availability has risen dramatically at a time when emp loyment growth has been insufficient and a commercial sex industry has expanded. This research confirms the cimportance of new methods of risk environment analyses, particularly in relation to trans-boundary hazards associated with global flows, including trade and human mobilities.

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.