Hanging out on Snapchat: disrupting passive covert netnography in tourism research

Abstract

Tourism research is increasingly turning to online social media conversations as a data source, but seldom assigning space in research outputs for ethical appraisals or reflexive accounts of data collection. Many tourism researchers download conversations after they have occurred, but presence is central to gaining rich insights through netnographic research. We contribute to and disrupt online tourism research by critiquing, extending, and adapting existing methods to Snapchat, which in itself disrupts possibilities for online data collection. Hanging out with tourist Snapchatters highlights how privacy concerns are a primary motive to post on Snapchat. Snapchat is understood by our participants as more private than other social media sites due to the ephemerality of content and the notification of screenshots (when others save your snap). It is no coincidence that these same functionalities render established methods of digital tourism research difficult in the case of Snapchat. Snapchat users also problematise the notion of social media as public space, as they utilise the platforms for much more than communicating with the world. Snapchatters create, augment, and store memories.

摘要

旅游研究越来越多地将在线社交媒体谈话作为数据来源, 但在现有研究产出中很少对之进行伦理性评价或者对数据收集进行反思性的描述。许多旅游研究人员会把谈话后的对话下载下来, 但在网络民族志研究中, 在场感是获取丰富见解的关键。我们通过批评、扩展和调试现有方法进行快拍研究, 对在线旅游研究有所贡献, 并对其有所颠覆性的发展。快拍本身就破坏了在线收集数据某些可能性。与游客拍照留念的人在一起, 突显出隐私问题是人们在快拍上发帖的主要动机。快拍被我们的参与者理解为比其他社交媒体网站更私密, 因为内容的短暂性和截屏通知(当其他人保存你的照片时)。同样的功能使得数字旅游研究的既定方法在快拍情形下变得困难, 这并非巧合。快拍的用户也对社交媒体作为公共空间的概念提出了质疑, 因为他们利用这些平台不仅仅是为了与世界交流。快拍聊天者创建、增强和存储了记忆。

Keywords:

• Snapchat
• netnography
• mobile virtual ethnography
• research ethics
• social media
• online privacy
• lurking
• online participant observation
• small data
• virtual spaces

关键词:

• 快拍
• 网络民族志
• 移动虚拟民族志
• 研究伦理
• 社交媒体
• 在线隐私
• 潜伏
• 在线参与观察
• 小数据
• 虚拟空间

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heather L. Jeffrey

Heather L. Jeffrey is a social researcher with interests in equality and ethics. She completed her doctoral studies in 2017, with a thesis centred on women and tourism in Tunisia. Heather is a Senior Lecturer in social sciences at Middlesex University Dubai and an associate at Equality in Tourism.

Hamna Ashraf

Hamna Ashraf completed her BA Honours in International Tourism Management with Distinction at Middlesex University Dubai. She is an accomplished freelance photographer and a digital marketing specialist based in the United Arab Emirates.

Cody Morris Paris

Cody Morris Paris is the Deputy Director for Academic Planning and Research at Middlesex University Dubai and an Associate Professor in the School of Law and the Business School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Hospitality and Tourism at the University of Johannesburg. He holds a PhD in Community Resource Development, MSc in Tourism Studies and BIS in International Geography and Political Science, with minors in Cultural Anthropology and Tourism from Arizona State University, USA.