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HISTORY OF THE FORMATION OF TRAVEL JOURNALISM
Zarimbetova Juldiz,
Nukus, Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan
E-mail: azshaba@web.de
phone: +998931251430
Abstract.
This article talks about the emergence of the concept of travel journalism and its
formation and development as a profession. This direction of journalism, formed in foreign
countries, is also reflected in the mass media of Karakalpakstan. The article contains
controversial discussions about the concept of travel journalism.
Key words.
Travel journalism, travel-writer, travelogue, genre, essay
In order to determine what travel journalism deals with, we first need to
clarify the concept of "travel". Since ancient times, mankind has loved to move
from one place to another. That is, there is a certain goal for a person to go from
one place to another. Traveling like this has a pragmatic meaning. But throughout
human history, travel has served a variety of purposes. The purposes of the people
who went on the journey differed from each other, for example, some went on a
military journey and some went on a journey to gain wealth.
With the development of ways of getting from one place to another in terms
of scientific and technical progress, the meaning of travel has also changed more
and more. There is, of course, a big difference between Christopher Columbus's
voyage to India in the 15th century to find a new sea route and the 21st century's
circumnavigation of the planet by air. Until the beginning of the last century, travel
was the main source of information about other countries. The information
obtained during this period was recorded at the level of development possibilities
of science and technology. Recording has been a method of data storage for
centuries. The publication of books made it possible to collect, store and distribute
information. From ancient times to today, the information of Herodotus and the
scientists who accompanied Alexander the Great on his journey to Asia and
Europe have reached us. A classic example of traveling around Eurasia was the
journey of the merchant Marco Polo to other countries (XVIII-XIV centuries), as
well as the travels of the Russian traveler Athanasius Nikitin. As a result of the
travels of these persons, books such as "The Description of the World" and
"Walking across three seas" were published.
In order to promote Christianity and Islam, traveling around the world has
also developed. The traveler wrote down a number of manuscripts about his
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travels. The era of great geographical discoveries can be described in a special
way, because these voyages completely changed the knowledge about the globe.
During the short period of human civilization, that is, the organization of special
expeditions expanded the imagination of the globe, improved knowledge. It also
enriched information about the location of continents and oceans. As a result of the
development of mobility, the means of travel, and the improvement of information
gathering and recording techniques, the purposes of travel have also changed. It
can be noted the trip to Africa of the great British David
Livingstone
[1]. As a
result of this trip, the imagination of the black continent was greatly revived.
During the expedition, he lost contact with the outside world and disappeared
without a trace for up to two years. Compatriot Henry Morton Stanley was sent to
Africa in 1871 to search for it. Henry Morton was actually a special correspondent
for the New York Herald. In this situation, we see that the first manifestations of
travel journalism were manifested. After the rescue operation, Stanley not only
wrote a series of reports, but also published a book called "How I Found
Livingstone" [2].
The period of development of travel journalism dates back to the beginning of
the 19th century, when manuscripts about Italy, the Middle East, and Egypt by
English, French, and German authors began to be published. Short stories of
travelers-tourists turned into real travel essays when written by professional
writers. Along with the literary form, they brought their own author's points of
view to the essay.
For example, in Russia, in the middle of the 19th century, travel essays such
as "Journey to Valaam" and "Journey to Imatur" appeared regularly in Russian
magazines and newspapers. In this place, it is worth noting the work of essayist
and writer V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. He was the author of a number of works
on Russian professional travelers. As a result of his travels in Russia and foreign
countries, the writer published a number of books. In Europe, the travelogue
tradition began to develop rapidly in the 20th century. A number of writers wrote
down their travelogues when they traveled for a long time. Among them, it is
worth noting the travel essays of the English writer Evelyn. American writer John
Steinbeck wrote a book entitled “Travels with Charley: In Search of America”.
Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, and Pico Iyers should be noted among modern foreign
essayists and travelers.
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In Former Soviet Union had a restriction for travelogues. The reason is that
the mass media was ideologically narrowed down at that time. Most travelogues
could not fully present their essays based on their travels in the former Soviet
Union. But the field of geography has developed widely. Oleg Ignatev's "Travel to
Brazil" and Sergey Kulik's "Travel to Africa" works, considered successful travel
journalists during the former Soviet Union, should be noted.
Since there was no travel journalism in Karakalpakstan during the time of the
former Soviet Union, many materials were published in newspapers and books
with the titles of travel essays. For example, we can cite J. Saparov's book "Attack
on Ustyurt". Although the main direction of the book is written in the form of a
travel essay, it also contains materials about the nature and magical world of
Ustyurt. Although it was not recognized as travel-journalistic material at that time,
it is worth noting the work of writer Maten Seytniyazov entitled "Journey to Seven
Lands" as an introduction to this genre. In this work, the author's travel to foreign
countries includes subjects recognized for travel journalism, methods of
introducing new lands to the culture and customs of the peoples living in this place.
The field of travel journalism in Karakalpakstan is developing after the
implementation of reforms related to the development of tourism in the country. In
particular, tourist-bloggers visiting the Savitsky Museum, the Aral Sea and
Ustyurt, ancient fortresses in Karakalpakstan are preparing interesting materials
about Karakalpakstan on their pages in social networks. Youtube and Instagram
platforms are popular among social networks. Local journalists and bloggers
organize media tours to tourist places from time to time. This, along with
increasing the tourist potential of the region, also affects the development of travel
journalism.
In 2017-2018, on the initiative of the Karakalpakstan News Agency, several
trips to the Aral Sea and Ustyurt Plateau were organized for the first time for local
journalists and bloggers. With the results of the media tour, a lot of content was
created on Internet resources, interesting materials were published on television
and radio, in the press. For example, the article entitled "Unforgettable Two Days
or Feelings Born After a Media Trip to the Aral Sea" was prepared as a result of
the media tour.
Natalya Shulepina, editor of sreda.uz, is one of the authors who writes a lot
about travel. The author has been to Karakalpakstan several times and prepared
interesting reports. Natalya Shulepina has a number of materials about the Aral
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Sea, nature and environment of Karakalpakstan. For example, "У Аральского
моря, 2021", "Приаралье и Западный Арал. Мы там были в сентябре 2021
года», these materials are written in the form of a picture reportage, that is,
information about the island is given based on the combination of pictures.
In the material named «Впечатление об Арале и Приаралье. Тугаи,
хангули и другие объекты для UNESСO и народа» it is mainly mentioned about
the Lower Amudarya Biosphere Reserve.
As for the formation of the term travel-journalism, this term requires more
clarification.
Wikipedia defines this term as follows: Travel journalism (meaning
"journalism about travel" in English) is a specific direction in the mass media.
Provides information on travel, studied in the context of geography, history,
culture, tourism and other topics [3].
In support of this concept, V. Pokazanyeva, graduate student of the SPbGU
Faculty of Journalism, explains that travel journalism is a special direction of soft
journalism. According to her, travel journalism can be called entertainment
journalism, journalism of passing time. It provides information to the user in a
public way about travel, and also explores history, geography, culture, art, tourism,
ethics, philosophy and other topics [4].
A natural question arises as to why we use the term "travel" here.
First, the term travel-journalism was formed among journalists who write
about travel. As a result of the penetration of this term into the Russian language,
there is a debate about whether we should write "trevel" or "travel" in Russian [5].
Second, the English term is short. Due to its late arrival in our journalism, it is
impossible to find another term to replace this term.
Even so, it is necessary to clarify the term "travel", because it is a broad
concept, the term is related not only to journalism, but also to the field describing
travel. The issue of this term is being discussed among English language scholars.
For example, the term "travel" was studied by Professor Joan Brom of the
University of Versailles-Saint-Canton-en-Yvelines in France [6, p. 13-16].
In fact, there is a concept of "travel writing" together with the term travel
journalism in English. Its meaning is a journalistic and literary work related to
travel, that is, a person who writes about travel is called a travel writer. So, the
term travel writing is a broader concept than travel journalism.
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According to Pokazanyeva, travel writer is closer to literature than journalism
and "Travel journalist is not engaged in literature, but in informative journalism,
travel journalist can work both on television and in the press. These terms are used
synonymously. This creates a problem of differentiation in the acceptance of travel
journalism as a field of journalism. She theoretically lives on the basis of certain
legalities with moral standards. Therefore, it can be accepted as fiction" [4].
However, the term "Travel writer", that is, the person who deals with it, is
accepted as a creator of fiction. Usually, travel journalists and travel writers are
owners of the same profession. For example, Ian Fleming's work " Thrilling Cities"
can be cited. It consists of the author's essays published in the newspaper "Sunday
Times" [7, p. 276]. It is not possible to distinguish whether it is about fiction or
journalism based on the term. In fact, fiction involves the creation of imagination,
while journalism is always based on facts, and a journalist creates a model of real
life through a model [8, p. 194]. Thus, the difference between journalism and
fiction is that literature has all kinds of forms, all kinds of interesting plots, but
journalism is far from emotions and presents facts without opinion [9, p. 384]. Paul
Theroux, the author of books about rowing, comments on this issue as follows:
«The difference between travelogue and fiction is measured by capturing what
is seen with the eye and determining what is imagined» [10, p. 292] A.V. Uscova
defines travel journalism as follows:
"A separate field of journalism, its main purpose is to provide information
about travel, it processes the topics of geography, culture and tourism" [11].
The term travel-journalism can be approached from the perspective of the
concept of travel-mediatext. Travel-journalism is polydiscursively complementary
because it is a genre at the intersection of different discourses. For example,
scientific, social, advertising, personal life discourse, etc. [12, p. 123], - comments
Redkina, an expert on journalistic genres. According to Alexander Permyakov, one
of the main problems of modern travel journalists is the lack of interest in local
people and culture. Even so, travel journalism is considered not only to show the
standard directions with local cuisine, but also to show the cultural differences
between countries. The task of a travel journalist is to help the travel reader to feel
which country, where he is located, and feel himself as the author of the trip [13].
Materials related to travel journalism attract a wide audience, even though the
topic is not concrete, it is unacceptable to call it specialized. The age, social status,
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and gender of the audience are not the same. Thus, the product of travel journalism
can be interesting to different social groups.
In general, travel journalism information sells well, with strong audience
demand. The media working in this regard can have a special place in the tourism
industry as well as selling their products.
REFERENCES
1.
Livingstone, David (1874).
Waller, Horace
(ed.).
The Last Journals of David
Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death: Continued by a
Narrative of His Last Moments and Sufferings, Obtained from His Faithful
Servants Chuma and Susi; in Two Volumes
. J. Murray
2.
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton) How I found Livingstone: travels,
adventures and discoveries in Central Africa: including an account of four
months' residence with Dr. Livingstone. New York, Scribner, Armstrong & Co.
3.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Трэвел-журналистика
4.
Показаньева И.В. Проблемное поле трэвел-журналистики как явления
современного медиапространства / И.В. Показаньева // Мediascope. 2013.
№ 3. URL:
https://tourlib.net/statti_tourism/pokazanyeva.htm
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практика.
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С.150-160.
https://tourlib.net/statti_tourism/redkina.htm
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Borm J. Defning Travel: On the Travel Book, Travel Writing and Terminology
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Youngs. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
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Fleming I. Thrilling Cities / I. Fleming. London: Vintage Books, 2009
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Поелуева Л.А. Факт в публицистике: автореф. дис... к.филол.н.: 10.01.10 /
Л.А. Поелуева. М., 1988.
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Дэннис Э. Беседы о масс-медиа / Э. Дэннис, Дж. Мэррилл. М.: Вагриус,
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Theroux P. Tao of Travel / P. Theroux. Boston; New York: Mariner Books,
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Усцова А.В. Прикладная роль трэвел-журналистики. //Выпускная
квалификационная работа // Научный корреспондент. 2016. URL:
12.
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учеб. метод. пособие. СПб.: С.-Петерб. гос. ун-т, Высш. шк. журн. и мас.
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https://lenizdat.ru/articles/1097432/
