The Voluntourist Gaze: Framing volunteer tourism experiences as portrayed in Facebook

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorSink, Lisa Ashleyen
dc.contributor.committeechairMcGehee, Nancy G.en
dc.contributor.committeememberMagnini, Vincent Paulen
dc.contributor.committeememberSantos, Carla A.en
dc.contributor.departmentHospitality and Tourism Managementen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T21:50:31Zen
dc.date.adate2012-07-31en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T21:50:31Zen
dc.date.issued2011-11-18en
dc.date.rdate2012-07-31en
dc.date.sdate2011-11-22en
dc.description.abstractThe purpose of this paper is to begin to analyze the discourse of volunteer tourism. More specifically, a holistic examination of the hermeneutic circle of volunteer tourism that takes into consideration the messages being communicated by volunteer tourism organizations, the voluntourist's interpretation and consumption of the messages, and in turn the re-distribution of the messages via social media using photographs and comments. The sending organization pre-trip materials were reviewed to determine if volunteer tourism participants experienced a voluntourist gaze and subsequently captured similar images as marketed by the sending organization, thus completing the hermeneutic circle. Using grounded theory, photographs were coded to flush out underlying themes and patterns. These themes and patterns were incorporated into semi-structured interviews that were conducted, using a purposive sample of participants in a volunteer tourism experience with a student volunteer organization, to document the experience of the voluntourist. Underlying patterns further studied included: tourist gaze (Urry, 1990) vs. family gaze (Haldrup and Larsen, 2003), characterizations of hosts (Caton & Santos, 2008), and the characterizations of other images (Schmallegger et al., 2010) utilizing content and semiotic analysis. These results were triangulated with the interview responses to interpret the story shared on Facebook. Additionally, Barthes (1977) theory of anchorage and relay was utilized to analyze the photographs uploaded onto Facebook and the related captions and comments to reveal the story shared.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-11222011-153459en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-11222011-153459/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/45982en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartSink_LA_T_2011.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectgazeen
dc.subjectphotographen
dc.subjectFacebooken
dc.subjectVoluntouristen
dc.titleThe Voluntourist Gaze: Framing volunteer tourism experiences as portrayed in Facebooken
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineHospitality and Tourism Managementen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Sink_LA_T_2011.pdf
Size:
2.41 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Masters Theses
Theses and Dissertations, Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM)