The introduction and increase of online diaries introduces new terminology into the digital humanities research field in terms of how we study online culture and blog content. Examples of new terminology are "digital ethnography, a research method focused on telling social stories", netnography or netblography, which analyzes first person online stories while also collecting data from tourists in order to understand their consumption during their travels. And lastly, technobiography is a “method for studying digital experiences in general, and the relationship between online and offline lives" by “examining online lives in offline contexts" (Banyai & Glover 274).

However, the two common analytic methods that researchers use towards travel blogs is content and narrative analysis, according to Banyai and Glover's research. Content analysis looks at the activities performed at a destination, the positive and negative outlook of the destination, the overall impression of the destination, the demographics of the author, and identity creation in terms of being in that destination (Banyai & Glover 269). Narrative analysis involves gaining insight into tourist-constructed identities, how they associate with their experiences, how they identity the temporal and spatial aspects of the trip, characteristics of travel experience, and deconstructs the story into quotes and episodes in order to “examine the involvement of technologized storytelling in the creation and manifestation of identities" (Banyai & Glover 271). I will apply the different characteristics from both analyses to complement my own analysis of the following three travel blogs: "Studying Abroad in Birmingham, England", "Travelling the World Solo", and "12hrs".

Demographics:

I am a 22-year-old female from Richmond Hill, Canada. However, my blog does not address this through a profile or 'about me' section. The only indication of my age group is through my title, "Studying Abroad in Birmingham, England: An exchange student from the University of Guelph". This title does not make my age or identification completely clear to my readers and I believe that a lack of this information affects the relationship between the author and readers. As previously mentioned, blogs create a sense of community and if the readers have no access to who the person is behind the blog, it creates distance and makes it more difficult to establish a community.

Layout:

I chose to use WordPress as my digital platform because I found their format easy to write in as well as useful to create a simple design for my website. My theme focuses on pictures in terms of illustrating the images found in my weekly posts into a grid format. In order for the reader to view a blog post, they would have to click on the desired picture. This emphasis on pictures demonstrates how travel writing is commonly complemented with the usage of photos, which can include the blogger in them, and can explain their travel experience in a way other than with words. In my actual blog entries, the writing is fragmented into small sections that are usually separated by a photo that illustrates an attraction or moment that was mentioned in that fragment. This choice of presentation exemplifies how travel writing can branch from lists or prose into a combination of the two, short sections of writing. I find that short blurbs of text encourage the writer to identify the main point of the narrative. With longer prose, I tend to ramble about insignificant travel details that can diminish the main experience I am trying to retell to my readers. For example, in my week 6 post I ramble in the beginning about how I have an unexpected reading week which leads me to talk about the excitement in having a month for Easter break. The point of the blog was to illustrate my first time travelling outside of England on my own. By not conforming to my usual short fragments I discussed mundane details that did not contribute to that experience.

Overall Content:

A lot of the content focuses on cultural experiences throughout my study abroad semester. There are a lot of pictures and descriptions about food, monuments, and other touristic activities. However, I excluded my shopping trips which I find to have taken up a significant amount of my trip. Souvenirs were always on my radar and while visiting monuments, I tend to find souvenirs for both myself and friends. This decision to exclude the commercial element of my travels portrays how online travel writing does not always have to include commercialism. I voluntarily created my travel blog therefore I had no desire to advertise products or companies because I was not being paid for it.

Style/Tone:

The writing style is informal in comparison to entries that I have written in actual notebooks. This decision can suggest that I find online blogging to be a more relaxing and lenient space in comparison to notebooks that are filled with lines and structure, which gives me the impression that I need to be more formal and serious with my writing. In relation to this, WordPress allows me to include “emojis" into my writing which has encouraged me to use them more as my travel blogs progressed, and can also contribute to the suggested informal environment.

Demographics:

A 22-year-old female who resides in Adelaide, Australia is indicated through the author’s inclusion of a ‘bio’ which is displayed in a list of links at the top of the website, as well as a preview of this profile in the right column under the recent blog posts. This openness to her identity that the author makes accessible for her readers shows how she wants to connect with them on a personal level. In order for readers to gain the full travel experience, it helps to know who the traveller is because the environment can alternate the traveller’s identity. As mentioned in narrative analysis, tourists can construct new identities when going to another country and the author’s decision to make her profile visible allows readers to create their own judgements about whether this rings true.

Layout:

Her blog is also constructed using WordPress, but uses a different theme in comparison to my own. Her layout presents the links bar in a clearer way and makes it easy for the reader to look for her bio, trips completed in other continents, and travel tips. However, the layout relies on pictures as the first impression, which is similar to how my theme functions. The reader would have to click on a photo in order to read the related content. The travel blog content is interestingly set beside other modes of communication, such as a link to her Instagram, Twitter, Facebook page, and biography. This illustrates how the inclusion of other social networks is integral into presenting your travel experience, words are not the only mode of communication that we need to rely on. The blog content is separated into smaller fragments which are also separated by photos from the trip. However, the photos act as prompts for the following sentences, whereas I would place my photos after I describe them to the audience. This layout decision illustrates how the readers can make their own first impressions of the photo. If the audience is exposed to the photo after the author’s interpretation, the reader’s impression can be biased and consequently takes away a part of the travel experience.

Overall Content:

The overall content focuses on the activities and sights that the author endures throughout her trip. What was most intriguing to me about the blog posts was at the end, it included a list of travel products used in the duration of the trip. This includes the clothing worn in the photos, the travel agencies used to create the trip, the cost of the trip, and the type of cameras used. This illustrates how consumerism is a huge influence in travel writing. Travel blogs are a mainstream distribution channel where a large audience can be reached so advertising other products and companies would be an effective marketing tool. This shows how describing one’s travel experience is not the only aspect when it comes to travel writing.

Style/Tone:

The author’s writing style is formal in terms of having complete sentences, zero emojis, and proper grammar and syntax. Travel blogs vary in how their content is portrayed, from bullet point lists to random observations in no sense of order, but her writing resonates with the kind of writing you find in books or journals. However, it does not exclude playful tone, which is portrayed in posts such as her Greenland trip when she encountered “HUSKY PUPPIES!".

Demographics:

There is no biography included in the blog, but it does include a ‘contact’ tab as well as a link to their Facebook page which describes it as a local/travel website and can imply that it is a business-related travel blog. However, if the user scrolls down to the bottom of the contact page, it says “MADE WITH LOVE BY ANNA PEUCKERT & SØREN JEPSEN". This is the only indication available to readers about who the creators are. When I first encountered the website, I discovered the authors completely by mistake. This discreteness shows how the blog can be impersonal, readers do not have access to who the authors are or what they look like. Their photos appear to be professional therefore only include models, and not themselves. The Facebook page also does not present viewers with their personal Facebook accounts. This privacy can show how travel blogs can be as anonymous as they want to be.

Layout:

This is a professional travel blog and is presented using their own website, unlike the previous two blogs using WordPress as their platform. The blog content is portrayed in a variety of ways; there are travel guides, newsletters, photo stories, and journals. This implies that an audience can prefer to read about travel experiences in other ways than just writing. These options provide different approaches for sharing travel experiences. The guides act as the travel blog where the authors write about their daily routine for a specific city. For example, in their Copenhagen guide, it is similar in style to the previous two travel blogs by presenting images and then blurbs that describe the image.

Overall Content:

They also include information about the attraction as well as a link for the reader to refer to if they are interested in adding it to their own itineraries. It presents a similar consumerism atmosphere as the previous blog, but a unique feature about the guides is that they include the time that they performed each routine. It focuses on temporality in a different way other than presenting a date or the number of the week when this trip occurred. In terms of their journal entries, they include descriptions of commercial establishments. For example, their “Lidkoeb" post is about a bar where they include the address, hours of operation, and brief history in how the bar was created. This venture puts a different spin on the definition of journals. I associate journals with personal memoirs and inclusion of information that pertains to the individual, I never would have associated it with advertisements. Therefore, travel blogs can be interpreted with various meanings, such as promoting a favourite bar, and does not have a strict format or guideline in how a travel experience can be interpreted by its authors.

Style/Tone:

Overall, the writing style is formal and includes business-related terminology. Their guides still refer to the ‘personal’ when they say “We are starting our day in..." but revert to commercialism by including restaurant names along with the prices of certain meals, such as “Breakfast bowls start at only 35 DKK". This choice of style and tone indicates a push-and-pull relationship between the author and readers. A glimpse into the ‘personal’ through their daily routine builds on the relationship with their readers but is cut short with commercial statements that can deconstruct this relationship. Readers can be treated as customers when reading through these posts and offer a different perspective in how readers can be implied by travel blog writers.