Mediating travel in elite and popular newspapers: Media inspired imagination of Turkey

Hamid-turksoy, N., Giselinde Kuipers (2013). Mediating travel in elite and popular newspapers: Media inspired imagination of Turkey. ETMAAL - 24 Hours of Communication Sciences.

Abstract: The majority of journalism research focuses on traditional “hard news” stories covering political and economic developments. The social and cultural role of “soft news” (e.g., lifestyle, art, travel) has largely been neglected by scholars, since it addresses readers as consumers rather than citizens and has little political authority in contemporary capitalist societies (Hanusch, 2012; Hanitzsch, 2007). As a consequence, the institutional, structural, regulatory and ethical dimensions of hard news journalism are well documented, whereas there is little research on soft news journalism: lifestyle, entertainment, arts, and, the main theme of this article travel. As Janssen, Verboord and Kuipers (2011) argue in their study of art journalism, “soft news” journalists function as gatekeepers: they publicly confirm or reject which forms of leisure are legitimate for specific readerships. Travel journalists similarly filter, frame and judge travel destinations of interest to particular groups of travel consumers. We define travel journalism as a practice aiming to present a destination in order to inspire and encourage home audiences to travel (abroad). Scholars have pointed to several features of this increasingly prominent genre. Travel journalism mediates experience of foreign countries, generating images of travel destinations and the “Others” who live there, and often evaluating the cultures and peoples it covers (Hanusch, 2010). Travel journalism shows how cultural and political relationships among nations are embedded in media texts and provides insight into processes of “Othering” and power relations between nations and cultures (Fürsich, 2002; Fürsich & Kavoori, 2001). Therefore, while seemingly “soft”, travel journalism has implications for citizenship: it provides information and cultural frames about “Others”, and can confirm stereotypes or contribute to transcultural encounters (McGaurr, 2010; Santos, 2004). This genre therefore not only informs but potentially transforms societies, cultures, and groups of people. As such, scholars argue that travel journalism represents both new and previously established structures of meaning, ideology and power (Cocking, 2009; Spurr, 1993). In this article, we focus on travel coverage about Turkey: a country with a multi faceted, contested image. Turkey is a prime tourist destination for Brits. According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Britain sends the third highest number of visitors to Turkey, after Germany and Russia. In 2011, Turkey received almost 3 million British tourists. However, in political news, Turkey often appears as politically and culturally contested: the exotic Muslim Other, simultaneously inside and outside Europe, a poor, uneducated, underdeveloped nation on Europe’s doorstep (Strasser, 2008). This multi-faceted character of Turkey allows for many possible news “angles” or “frames”, also in travel journalism. We present a comprehensive analysis of 99 travel features from three British broadsheet (Guardian, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph) and three tabloid (The Sun, Daily Mail, Mirror) newspapers, over a five-year period (2005-2010). The British newspaper landscape is characterized by a strong class divide: broadsheet for the élites, tabloids for the masses. Contrasting and comparing two mediums, thus, allows us to gauge the relation between journalistic form and content, and broader institutional settings and target audience. These mediums have salient institutional settings and language, as well as, distinctive consumption styles about travel can provide alternative understanding to the perception of travel journalism practice. Drawing on work relating to travel journalism, we ask how travel stories facilitate the construction of meanings and manufacture a travel destination for the newspaper’s intended reader. We found considerable differences in genre, themes, narrative, language and visual between both types of newspapers. The tabloid press, largely targets lowermiddle and working class readers, largely focusing on all-inclusive mass tourism stories, while broadsheet newspapers criticise such “cheap, packaged bombardment” and introduce an élite construct of the “authentic” and tailor-made Turkish experience, high on cultural capital and explicitly defining class. Nevertheless, our overall results illustrate a number of commonalities: a first person perspective, flowery language, and the absence of criticism or the local’s perspective suggests that travel journalism is dictated by a wider economic logic. As they has a mutually dependent relationship with the travel industry, for advertisement revenues. This obliges the journalists to write more positive stories about Turkey, whilst any negative experience are absent from the travel features.