Travel Journalists and Professional Identity: Ideology and evolution in an online era

Online resources are increasingly facilitating research for those traveling for business or leisure. Professionally produced articles and guides are now consulted alongside TripAdvisor, blogs, wikis, and other non-professional sources. This research seeks to understand the role of travel journalists, to explore their occupational ideology and how they distinguish themselves from other content creators. Through content analysis and interviews with English-speaking journalist and bloggers who focus on Paris as a destination, researchers were able to identify an ideology specific to professional travel journalists. Ultimately they do not do anything that amateur writers cannot, and often rely on their branded publication to give them credibility. Travel journalists do, however, adopt some practices inherent to bloggers interviewed, including moving towards more personal writing and lowering reporting standards, while resisting social media. While in a moment of identity crises, travel journalists still differentiate themselves from bloggers, further research will reveal if this phenomenon is unique to a highly mediatized destination like Paris

Plurality and extensions of travel journalism : new actors, new pratices, new expectations

L’industrie du tourisme a beaucoup évolué et continue de se transformer sous l’effet du numérique, mais aussi sous l’effet des changements sociaux et économiques. L’information destinée aux voyageurs, auparavant produite par les seuls professionnels du métier – les journalistes de voyage – s’est diversifiée. De nouveaux acteurs, comme les blogueurs et les commentateurs des sites de recommandation, sont devenus des sources d’information importantes pour les voyageurs. Nos travaux de recherche se proposent d’explorer les pratiques des auteurs en ligne ainsi que la réception et l’interprétation de leurs écrits par les voyageurs. Des entretiens qualitatifs menés auprès de journalistes, blogueurs et commentateurs producteurs d’informations autour de Paris, éclairent leurs méthodes et pratiques et leur niveau d’adoption ou de rejet des codes traditionnels du journalisme. Dans un second temps, une autre série d’entretiens avec des voyageurs nous ont permis de mettre en évidence les jugements émis par ces « consommateurs » sur les contenus trouvés en ligne. En considérant les motivations de ces internautes, surtout l’aspiration à vivre des expériences « authentiques », les chercheurs peuvent mieux comprendre ce que les voyageurs apprécient. Les résultats suggèrent que les productions des journalistes de voyage, blogueurs et contributeurs participent chacune à leur manière à alimenter l’internaute en information lorsqu’il organise son voyage. Quant aux « consommateurs » de ces articles ou commentaires sur une destination, ils apprécient trouver une variété d’informations. Ces travaux permettent de formuler une conclusion générale au sujet du journaliste de voyage professionnel, dont les écrits ne sont qu’un fragment parmi toute la production d’informations touristiques, à laquelle contribuent également des non-professionnels. Le journalisme de voyage s’avère être un processus riche, au sein duquel différents types d’acteurs évoluent, pour répondre aux besoins des voyageurs-internautes.The travel industry has evolved over the past decades, including social and technological changes that allow more people than ever to cross the globe. Travel journalists working for established media are no longer the sole gatekeepers of information relating to a destination. New authors, including bloggers and commentators on recommendation sites, have become major sources of information for travelers. This project seeks to explore both the practices of these online authors as well as the reception and interpretations of their work by travelers. Qualitative interviews with a sample of journalists, bloggers, and forum contributors in Paris help shed light on how these individuals adhere to notions considered “journalistic” as defined by traditional manuals. The goal is to explore and elaborate a definition of the travel journalist as opposed to non-professional authors. Secondly, through interviews with travelers who plan their trips online, the research aims to understand how consumers prioritize and value the content they find on the internet, especially looking at motivations linked to the idea of discovering authentic experiences abroad. Findings suggest that travel journalists, bloggers, and forum contributors all participate uniquely to the travel planning process, providing different elements. On the reception end, travelers consume many sources during their travel planning, and actively seek various websites and publications for different reasons. The overall conclusion is that travel journalists are just one important yet specific part of the larger process of travel journalism that acts interdependently with non-professional sources to respond to the online traveler’s needs

Travel information online: navigating correspondents, consensus, and conversation

Travel information exists in paper guides, word of mouth, and countless websites. Organizing a trip has never been more accessible and simultaneously riddled with doubt. Professional journalists produce travel journalism while often anonymous reviewers on TripAdvisor provide their commentaries, and in between, there are blogs, wikis, tourism boards, vendors, and a host of other information sources available. How does the twenty-first-century tourist make sense of all of this information? Through a study of tourists in Paris, this study seeks to understand the methods and strategies that they employ in order to identify trustworthy and useful information. Interviews with a sample of travellers reveal that each person has his/her own unique process guided by their personal motivations, but they also share several practices along the way. This research reveals that tourists ultimately exhibit a multistep process of verification using both professional and non-professional sources. No one type of author or website appears to be a unique or singular influencer when it comes to primary or trustworthy sources. These findings will lead to larger discussions about destination management and transparent practices among information providers

Travel journalism 2.0. Tourists’ motivations, expectations, and practices online.

<div class="page" title="Page 13"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><ul><li>With travel culture increasingly moving online, from bookings to sharing photos on social networks, information concerning tourist destinations is also shifting to the web and digital sources. Whereas travel guides, magazines, and newspaper travel sections were once the gatekeepers of the tourism industry, online forums, review sites, and blogs driven by audiences are quickly becoming equally important sources of information for tourists. Audiences are increasingly producing, selecting, and distributing travel advice and critiques that are viewed as trustworthy, but without the transparency demanded of journalists. But when it comes to nding information, where do today’s tourists actually look and what do they trust? A sample of travelers interviewed in Paris helped explore how they search for information and what value they attribute to various categories, speci cally blogs, in ful lling their travel needs. Results reveal that travelers show a preference for audience-driven content like blogs and TripAdvisor when looking for “insider” or “authentic” information. They deem such sites more personal and akin to word of mouth advice sought by travelers. These same information sources, however, do not always adhere to journalistic standards of transparency or veri cation, putting into question their trustworthiness. While non-professional travel content gains more readers, professional media is not left behind. Travelers identi ed journalistic sources as valuable when it comes to more standard or perennial information that bloggers may not, or cannot, provide. Travelers also revealed they systematically search multiple sources – forums, articles, review sites, and blogs – before planning a trip. According to our interviews, this plurality of sources illustrates a lack of total con dence in any one particular source. What’s more, bloggers and other non-professionals are integrating into professional publications, and such convergence further blurs the lines between the journalist and audience, especially as bloggers often lack the ethics and codes of professionals.</li></ul><p> </p><div class="page" title="Page 13"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><ul><li>Avec la culture du voyage se diffusant de façon croissante en ligne, des réservations au partage de photos sur des réseaux sociaux, l’information concernant les destinations touristiques s’adapte aussi très largement à l’environnement numérique. Tandis que les guides de voyage et les rubriques voyages des magazines et journaux ont été longtemps les gatekeepers de l’industrie du tourisme, les forums en ligne, les sites de recommandation et les blogs amateurs deviennent actuellement des sources primordiales pour les touristes. Mais, quand il s’agit de rechercher de l’information, où cherchent les touristes contemporains et à quoi font-ils con ance? Dans cette étude, un échantillon de voyageurs interviewés à Paris nous aide à explorer les pratiques de recherche d’information en ligne et la valeur qu’ils attribuent aux diverses sources, principalement les blogs, pour répondre à leurs besoins d’information touristique. Les résultats montrent que les voyageurs préfèrent le contenu produit par le public comme les blogs et TripAdvisor pour obtenir des informations ‘insolites’ et ‘authentiques’. Ils trouvent ces sites plus personnels proche du bouche à l’oreille. Ces mêmes sources d’information n’adhèrent pourtant pas toujours aux standards journalistiques de transparence et de véri cation, mettant en question leur véracité. Alors que le contenu non-professionnel attire de plus en plus les lecteurs, les médias professionnels ne sont pas exclus non plus. Les voyageurs consultent des sources journalistiques quand ils ont besoin d’informations plus standard ou pérennes que les blogueurs ne peuvent offrir. Les voyageurs avouent aussi qu’ils cherchent systématiquement une pluralité de sources – forums, articles, sites de recommandation, et blogs – avant d’organiser leur voyage. Selon les entretiens menés, cette pluralité de sources illustre le manque de con ance dans l’une ou l’autre des sources consultées. De plus, les blogueurs et les autres acteurs non-professionnels s’intègrent au sein des publications professionnelles, et cette forme de convergence rend encore plus oues les frontières entre le journaliste et le public, d’autant que les blogueurs manquent souvent d’éthique et de codes professionnels.</li></ul><p> </p><div class="page" title="Page 14"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><ul><li>Com a cultura de viagem se difundindo de forma crescente na internet, das reservas à partilha de fotos nas redes sociais, a informações sobre os destinos turísticos também tem se adaptado amplamente ao ambiente digital. Da mesma forma que os guias de viagem e as editorias de turismo das revistas e dos jornais foram, durante muito tempo, os gatekeepers da indústria do turismo, os fóruns online, os sites de viagem e os blogs amadores tornaram-se atualmente as fontes primordiais para os turistas. Mas, quando se trata de pesquisar uma informação, onde os turistas contemporâneos fazem a sua buscam? E no que eles con am? Neste estudo, uma amostra de viajantes foi entrevistada em Paris com o objetivo de nos ajudar a explorar as práticas de pesquisa da informação online e o valor atribuído por essas pessoas às diferentes fontes, sobretudo os blogs, na forma como elas respondem às suas necessidades por informação turística. Os resultados mostram que os viajantes preferem conteúdos produzidos pelo público, como os blogs e o site TripAdvisor, para obter informações “insólitas” e “autênticas”. Eles enxergam esses sites mais pessoais como algo mais próximo da informação boca a boca. Contudo, essas mesmas fontes de informação nem sempre aderem aos padrões jornalísticos de transparência e de veri cação, o que acaba por questionar sua veracidade. Assim, mesmo que o conteúdo não pro ssional atraia cada vez mais leitores, a mídia pro ssional também não éi excluída. Os viajantes consultam as fontes jornalísticas quando eles têm a necessidade de informações mais padronizadas ou perenes do que aqueles que os blogs podem oferecer. Os viajantes também revelaram que eles buscam sistematicamente por uma pluralidade de fontes – fóruns, artigos, sites de recomendação, e blogs – antes de organizar uma viagem. De acordo com as entrevistas, essa pluralidade de fontes ilustra a falta de con ança em ambas as fontes consultadas. Além disso, os blogueiros e outros autores não pro ssionais se integram ao ambiente das publicações pro ssionais e essa forma de convergência deixa ainda mais confusas as fronteiras entre o jornalista e o público, até porque frequentemente faltam aos blogueiros a ética e os códigos pro ssionais.</li></ul></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div