Compelled Performances& Personalization: The Photographing and Instagram Practices of Indonesian Female Travel Bloggers

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(1)Compelled Performances & Personalization: The Photographing and Instagram Practices of Indonesian Female Travel Bloggers. by Heni Wang. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. Graduate Institute of Mass Communication. Advisor: Eva Tsai, Ph.D.. National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan August 2019.

(2) ABSTRACT When I saw Trinity’s post on Instagram, who is one of famous Indonesia bloggers, I suddenly have a question: How do female travel bloggers create new narratives and present their travel experiences through Instagram photo? I want to know the reason, so I have examined three travel bloggers performance on Instagram. The empirical work is based on netnography, involving the analysis of Instagram posts, images, and comments from the followers. This research aims to analyze Indonesian female bloggers’ online characteristic through Instagram travel photos. Moreover, the research focused on the personalization and the representation of Indonesian female travel blogger which turn them into forms of digital labor. The result of this research shows the performances of the bloggers exhibit personalization form that brings different themes of each bloggers. Marischka, the first blogger case, shows herself as a style conscious creator in the Instagram world. The second blogger, Trinity is a veteran travel expert who adapts her visual composition to Instagram. The last blogger case in my research, Kadekarini send messages of selfimprovement and self-reflection in her Instagram post. The three bloggers have authorized themselves to become the successful digital labors among the digital economy. Keywords: Instagram, Performances, Personalization, Travel Blogger. I.

(3) 中文摘要. 當我看到一位有名的印尼女性部落客 Trinity 的一篇貼文，腦中突然產生一個疑問：女性旅遊部落客是如何構想她們的文章內容以及將她們的旅遊經驗透過 Instagram 的照片表現出來。為了得知原因，因此我探究三名旅遊部落客在 Instagram 的表現。本研究以網路研究為基礎，包含分析 Instagram 的貼文、圖片，以及粉絲留言。本研究目的在透過 Instagram 上的旅遊照片來解析印尼女性部落客的特色。此外，本研究的重點是個性化旅遊部落格的代表性，使他們成為數位勞動者。研究的結果顯示：這些部落客的表現展示了個人化形式，為每位部落客帶來了不同主題。第一個案例是 Marischka ，如同注重風格的創作者，在 Instagram 世界中展現她自己。第二位是 Trinity，她是一位經驗豐富的旅遊專家，將自己的視覺構圖融入 Instagram 中。最後的 Kadekarini 在她的 Instagram 發文中傳達自我提升和自我反省的訊息。這三位部落格已授權自己成為數位經濟中成功的數位勞動力。關鍵字：Instagram, 展演，個性化，旅游部落格. II.

(4) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. First, I would praise to God Almighty for his blessings, grace, guidance, and inclusion during the whole process of writing this thesis. This thesis is prepared as a requirement to obtain Master of Arts. There were many difficulties before finishing this thesis, the lack of extensive insight and the limited knowledge disturbed me for the most part. However, thanks to the guidance and support of all parties, this thesis was finally completed, although there were still many shortcomings. Therefore, I would like to thanks to four people too: 1. Eva Tsai, my advisor, who has given the opportunity and the full guidance to me to make this thesis finish, 2. Kelly Hu and Joyce Yeh who have given suggestions and criticisms to me, 3. My parents who always give encouragement and support me 4. My friends, compatriots from graduated University. Finally, I realize that all materials of this thesis are out of complete. So, for that, I hope readers could criticize or suggest a response to this thesis. Thank you.. III.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACTS………………………………………………………………………...I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………………...…….III TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………..IV LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………….....….VI LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………..….VII CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………….1 Research Background…………………………………………..………..…….1 Statement of problem………………………………………………..…….…..3 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………….…………6 The Performing Turn of Tourist Gaze…………………………….………..…6 Instagram and the Visual Attraction………………………………….…….…8 Impact of Instagram on Tourism…………………………………….…...…..11 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY…………..…………………………………..…13 Introduction…………………………………………………………...………13 Netnography for Understanding the Three Bloggers.……………………......13 Interview……………………………………………………………….....….14 Data Collection and Analysis………………………………………….....….15 The Travel Bloggers Under Focus………………………………………..….16 Principles of Coding…………………………………………………………20 CHAPTER IV THE CONSTRUCTION OF PERSONAS THROUGH INSTAGRAM ……….………….………….………….………….………….…....23 Marischka : The Conscious Travel Blogger ……….………….………….…23 Trinity: A Travel Expert by Experience.….………………………….……...29 Kadekarini’s Travel and Life Coach – The Spirit of Encouragement….........35 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………..........42 CHAPTER V The Gaze and the Women …………………………..……………...43 Women and Their Travel Life Stories in Post-Modernism: Traveling for WellBeing…………………………………………………….…………………..43 Personalization Autonomy for Achieving Digital Economy.…………….…44 CHAPTER VI Technology and Gaze……...…………..…………………………..47 Performances on the Instagram, the way of identity expression and sociability. IV.

(6) channel to the commodified self….…………………………………………47 In Instagram We Perform………………………………….……….……..…48 Self-representation and the Self-gaze………………………………….….…49 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………50 APPENDIX: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS LIST...………………….………54. V.

(7) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1@trintiytraveller, she jokingly “stole” a bicycle from the Maldives hotel....4 Figure 2.1 Instagram function: Explore, Insta story…………………………………...9 Figure 2.2 Instagram function: hash-tag, geo-tag location……………………………9 Figure 2.2 Instagram function: hash-tag, geo-tag location……………………………9 Figure 3.1 the step of the research process…………………...………………………14 Figure 3.2 @MarischkaPrue’s Instagram Profile…………………………………….19 Figure 3.3 @Trinitytraveler’s Instagram Profile……………………………………..19 Figure 3.4 @Kadekarini’s Instagram Profile……………………………………...…19 Figure 4.1 The poses of “comewithme” of Marischka’s version ……………....……24 Figure 4.2 Marischka posed with props to offer and enhances followers’ allure……25 Figure 4.3 The close-up shot of the commercial drink’s product…………..……..…27 Figure 4.4 Marischka gets a sponsor and promotes the product.………………….…29 Figure 4.5 Trinity stated she takes picture of her-self……………………………….31 Figure 4.6 Instagram makes Trinity pose with inflatable flamingo float ……………32 Figure 4.7 Trinity’s signature pose……………………………………..……………33 Figure 4.8 Trinity posing in a bathtub……………………………………………….34 Figure 4.9 Kadekarini stated the reason why she started sharing on social media…. 37 Figure 4.10 Photos: the Illusion of the daydreaming into the rich travel activities and experiences……………………………..…………………………………………….38 Figure 4.11 the illustration of tone filters that Kadekarini uses…………………...…39 Figure 4.12 Kadekarini produces collective gaze photos ……...…………………….40 Figure 4-13 Kadekarini has partnership with one of smartphone brand……………..41. VI.

(8) LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Subjects in Self-Photos…………………………………………..…21. VII.

(9) CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION. Research Background The rise of social network sites (SNS) has changed contemporary tourism industries. Tourists turn to the social media for travel information and decision. Companies also promote and advertise particular travel destinations on social media. In recent years, destination marketers and companies started to use image-sharing SNS such as Pinterest and Instagram. Fatanti & Suyadnya's research (2015) found that in Indonesia tourism destination brands use Instagram to promote places. As social media, Instagram embrace visual and user generated content as part of their marketing strategy. Moreover, in other research found that visual/photos play drives more in forming destination image for tourists (Stepchenkova & Zhan, 2012; Walters & Cassel, 2016). Pittman and Reich (2016) also evinced picture is more attractive than text. They compared Instagram and Twitter and concluded that pictures are more appealing than text. They argue SNS make people feel like their friends are right beside them. In particular, pictures have an authenticating effect; also prove that tourists have been to the place. Larsen and Urry (2011) mentioned tracking down and capturing images can demonstrate to friends and family that they really have been there. Villi (2015) argued that photographs can show someone is present. Moreover, Villi revealed photographs can be a medium for mediation and communication. In other words, a photograph embodies the possibility of the object or person in the photograph being present for the viewer, offering mediated presence (Villi, 2015: 22). With the growth of technologies, photographs are now widely produced, consumed, and circulated through computers, mobile phones and via internet especially social-networking sites. Digital photography makes photographic images instantaneous, mobile, and instantly consumable on screens (Urry and Larsen, 2011). Today, there are many social networking sites based on photo application such as Instagram, Snapchat, Flickr and many more. One of the most well-known sites is Instagram. Instagram was launched in October 2010. Until today, over 52 million photos have posted on Instagram each day. In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram. Instagram is an application based on mobile phones. It is simple, and the user can easily take pictures and upload them anytime. Therefore, now there are 700 million users on. 1.

(10) Instagram (Instagram Press, 2017). Instagram provides many features such as hashtag, like, comment and geo-tagging, etc. In the last five years, Indonesia tourism industry sector has contributed much to the nation’s GDP, which continues to rise by the year. According to the Indonesia Tourism Bureau, Indonesia tourism sector has supplied US$ 12,225 billion in comparison with 2011, which shows US$ 8,554 billion. In 2019, the government estimates the tourism industry will contribute 8% of GDP and 20 million tourists will visit Indonesia. The growth of Indonesia’s tourism steadily rises at the rate of 5.1% compared to ASEAN and 4.4% for worldwide. According to Belk and Yeh (2011), the growth of tourism brings a pathway to economic growth especially in the less affluent nation. Today, in order to promote Indonesia's beautiful potential places, the government designated 10 nationals for promotion. With the tropical climate and thousands of islands, Indonesia is an ideal place travel and explore. Arguably, those increasing numbers are liked enhanced by travel bloggers. Along with the rapid growth of social media, travel bloggers also play a role in the tourism industry and spread travel information (Hidayat, 2014; Ramadhanny, 2015). They become trendsetters and influence people through their travel experiences. People trust in social media more and more. Thus, there are more popular media platforms for travelers. It connects to other people and makes it easier to find information from other people. Social media allow people to express more personal experiences. Thus, the social media have a significant impact on the tourism industry. Bloggers are now more active on Instagram. Prihanani’s (2015) research found that people use Instagram as their traveling references. Moreover, the Prihanani’s research argues Instagram has made the publication of tourism activities easier. Besides, government or travel companies argue Instagram has become an effective visual platform to promote travel destination. The simple and convenient interface makes Instagram well accepted in Indonesia. It also allows users to explore the pictures from other people around the world. Now, there are 45 million people using Instagram in Indonesia, comparing to the 22 million in early 2016. Indonesia now has the most Instagram users in Asia Pacific (Bohang, 2017). Given this point, this study will focus on the application of an idea between travel bloggers and Instagram as an influencer. Although they have blogs, nowadays bloggers 2.

(11) like to produce niche content and reach a targeted audience into other platform, make income from it, and become influencer. In all cases, travel bloggers disseminate beautiful destination images on Instagram and attract a lot of followers on Instagram, so I will focus on Instagram’s content.. Statement of Problem However, technology has transformed visualization made visualization a more dominant component. Larsen and Urry (2011) argued that vision is connected to tourism experience. Photography acts as a medium for tourists to extend the gaze. People gaze at the place on photography and circulate images of the distant place. Specifically, photography has significantly changed tourists sightseeing and consuming images. Photography constructs and shapes the way we gaze and travel. In other words, the notion of tourist gaze is both the consumption of places through mobile images and the actual travel to of specific places (Larsen, 2014). But along with the rapid growth of technology, tourists not only gaze at places but also get involved and participate more. Tourists are connecting, understanding through the sign, and capturing it photographically, which is called “performance turn” (Larsen and Urry, 2011). Performances are more significant than consuming place or gazing at place. Performance embodies the nature of interaction and social life which include enacting, expressing – through pose, gesticulate and many more. As in Kim's (2016) research, tourists like to re-enact a particular scene on TV drama. The other research shows that tourists changed their photographic performance from traditional, such as smiling in front of Rock Aphrodite, to modern, such as throwing Rock Aphrodite into the sea. Performances are transformed into personalized, fragmented, playful events (Stylianou, 2012). Moreover, photography allows people to share performances of friendship, intimacy, and love. For example, kissing in front of the Eiffel Tower is a display of attention. Tourists experience their travel through bodily engagement, including related choreographed moves like kissing or photographed moments in romantic places. A popular Indonesia travel blogger by the name of @trintiytraveller has posted a photo of her bicycle amidst a Maldives villa. In the caption section, she jokingly “stole” a bicycle from the Maldives hotel, and she said if there is no Instagram, she wouldn’t. 3.

(12) take any property and pose with it (shown below). The question is what is the relation between bicycle and Trinity? In addition, what is the meaning of her caption? The addition of the caption adds extra information that intervenes the meaning of the photo. The photo raises the question: is the travel blogger selling the bicycle or the image of the destination? If like Trinity said on the caption it just because Instagram, then why does she like that? And what their followers said about it? Based on the Trinity’s case story, the issue of bloggers’ performances on the Instagram become the issue of this research. They try experiments with the camera by directing and posing. They would design poses to have a good result. Apparently, there is an imagined audience to whom the travel bloggers are trying to please.. Figure 1.1@trintiytraveller, she jokingly “stole” a bicycle from the Maldives Hotel, source: @trinitytraveler.. How people edit and organize their Instagram feed has become a hot topic among Instagram users. Lo and Mckercher’s research (2015) have shown that tourists are engaged in “impression management” to take, edit and share their visual images on social media. Lo also mentioned that tourist care that their performance is shown to their imagined audiences on the photo selection process. Similarly, Morley (2015) in her Guardian articles revealed that people need to update Instagram look. For instance, she gives many key shots at summer such as knees in the middle of the sun and sea, sunglasses, and phones on the table and so on. She argued these photos that we look at on social media are the art-directed visions.. 4.

(13) Based on the description above, it looks like travel bloggers are searching for the photogenic composition from travel. Travel bloggers are busy producing personal and precious photo narratives such as posing for a camera, choreographing photography, and doing memory work at home. Tourists try to build their ongoing personal narratives of images circulated from their existing gaze. Thus, I propose the following research questions: How do female travel bloggers create new narratives and present their travel experiences through Instagram photo? Specifically, what photographic, visual, and performing technique do they use? In order to understand how travel bloggers perform, this research will examine three popular travel blogger’s Instagram posts. This research wants to examine how visual imagery is employed to present the way travel bloggers travel via Instagram photo galleries. We see their Instagram galleries, and how they manage and shape people’s performance. The researcher aims to investigate how visual imagery is used to present the gazing and the performances and find out how Instagram has brought them to the aesthetic entrepreneurialism.. 5.

(14) CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW The Performing Turn of Tourist Gaze In 1990, Urry coined the “tourist gaze” concept as the important way tourists see. “Tourist gaze” refers to how looking is a learned ability and that the pure and innocent eye is a myth (Urry and Larsen, 2011). The notion of gaze is about a visual sense of consuming and photographing places. Since the advent of postmodernism, the vision is mediated through mobile images, representations, and technologies. What people ‘gaze upon’ is an ideal representation of the view from various media and other popular culture forms like movies, television, and social media and so on. These media make tourists daydream and imagine a certain place to gaze upon. Photography also played a role in capturing the gazing moment. Thus, tourists tend to take pictures of what they have already gazed at or seen to prove that they have been there. So, the notion of “tourist gaze” captures both the consumption of places through mobile images and the actual travel to and embodying appreciation of specific places (Larsen, 2014: 306). In Kim’s research (2010), he observed the media production changed tourist experience. Specifically, tourists have re-enacted scenes from the Korean TV drama series (Winter Sonata). Kim took a tourist’s photos where the tourist is re-enacting a bicycle riding scene, kissing a snowman, and snowman scene – and compared them with the original images on TV drama. Kim argued that TV drama engages audience’s involvement such as empathy, identification, etc. through stories. Kim added observation and interview to explain completely. At the end, Kim mentioned actually this re-enactment is part of tourists’ performance and become part of the overall experience. While today tourism has been part and “standard package” of leisure, tourists want to see rather than show a more accurate view (Belk and Yeh, 2011). Moreover, the tourists no longer just gaze. They perform more than gaze. Urry and Larsen redefines tourist gaze 3.0 as a performance. Urry and Larsen said the tourists are not only limited by seeing but also engage in their activities. It involves embodied practice, interpreting and capturing the sign such as touching, smelling, and other bodily experiences. The performances change into new forms and become playful. In other words, Urry and Larsen said tourists also become more active as performers, while the photographer is a director, and the sites are stages. In addition, these performances are. 6.

(15) related to the nature of human interaction and social life such as enacting, expressing, and being emotional and responsive. Then tourists perform through a pose, gestures, wink and much more. Urry mentioned tourists are not only concerned about ‘consuming place’ or hegemonic ‘place-myths’ but also with self-presentation and strategic impression management. And here tourists are creating their impression management through the pose. Tourists try to express their body message and convert it to images. In other words, poses are the output of tourists’ performance. Tourists will start their performance in the most conventional poses and positions inside the frame, such as standing in front of the places or facing the camera and smiling. Edensor (1998) argued that it facilitates and naturalize story-telling and modes of collecting and labeling. In other instantaneous performances, tourists act, play and cooperate with the photographer to construct beautiful, elegant or even amusing images. Sometimes, they create an illusion in a photo, such as tourists holding up the Taj Mahal between the thumb and forefinger (Edensor, 1998). Belk and Yeh (2011) also revealed that tourists want to take a photo and act like the photo in the postcard. They mentioned they will not find family and friends on postcards, so they remake the poses in touristic locations. Some of these actions are kind of “family gaze”. In a similar vein, Stylianou’s research (2012) has indicated that tourists’ performance looks playful and has more poses. Stylianou examined the behavior of tourists with their camera and concluded that they were either the passive consumer of places or active cultural producer of the photo. He analyzed postcards and online photo sharing to find out the reproducing or producing of tourist’ performance (photo). The research used visual and textual analysis method. The result shows tourists preferred to reenact and reproduce images of what they have seen. However, tourists also show their performance by creating new or unique images such as picking up the rock of Aphrodite or kicking it into the sea. For example, the sunset in Bali arouses tourists to take the photo in golden hour (period shortly after sunrise or before sunset). In this case, performances are affected by time and spaces, such as what action should take place at particular places and time. This particular place and time condition the kind of activities that can be enacted. Tourists will gaze at particular place and time that they have been watching, then they 7.

(16) start to perform for that photographic moment. Since the advent of mobile technology, tourists tried to make their gazing or performances happen through tools such as mobile phone and camera. Urry argued that photography becomes a medium for tourists to extend the gaze. Gazing has constructed what one has to go to see and capture on camera. And of course, here the photography becomes a tool to record moments, through which moment or experience can be converted into an image (Edensor, 1998). Through photography, the tourists have commemorated their travel experiences and their photos become “souvenirs” (read: comes to French for “to remember) of the trip (Urry, 2011; Endesor, 1998; Belk and Yeh, 2011) Photography shapes the way tourists travel. Now, tourists are busy stopping and capturing all their travel activities. Moreover, places only emerge as tourist places and stage of tourism. Tourists are active to commemorate the images, upload, and share among social media, while at the same time the images could attract another tourist to reproduce the same images. Within this circle of representation, tourists produce images then encourage another tourist to have a homogenous type of photos. Finally, Belk and Yeh (2011:349) said: “performativity of such photography with its staging and posing of shots means that tourists intend something more than simply experiential documentation.” In other words, it means tourists performance and tourists photography allow tourists to not only capture memories but also create an illustration of self-narrative.. Instagram and the Visual Attraction Instagram is a photo sharing application and was launched in 2010. It was acquired by Facebook in 2012. In April 2017, there were 700 million users and 400 million daily activities (Instagram press, 2017). Instagram is based on the mobile phone application. It combines smartphones cameras and the real-time connection of social media. Statista (2017) has examined that 4.77 billion own a mobile phone and forecast to reach 5 billion in 2019. Therefore, with the percentage of usage and convenience of mobile phones, users can quickly use their mobile phone to take a photo, edit and share among social media. The ‘insta’ refers to ‘instant'; a camera which it provides quickly finished photograph. It refers to instant image making, image-sharing, and image viewing. In. 8.

(17) contrast with other photo sharing platforms which have to go from camera to a computer then to the website, Instagram emerged in mobile phones and is also quick and easy to integrate with other platforms (Fallon, 2014). In other words, Instagram offers a fast, beautiful and fun way to share photo life with friends and family. We can post many kinds of photos on Instagram leisurely and casually. Unlike the other social media photo sharing platform, Flickr, Manovich said that most Flickr users use high-quality photos and more professional photos to share, vice versa with Instagram which shares lower or general quality photos (Manovich, 2016). Instagram has some distinct features that are particularly useful for us to easily find some related content. The features include hashtags, location tags, biography space, explore, Instagram-story and many more.. Figure 2.1 Instagram function: Explore, Instagram story, source: Instagram Press blog, 2017. Figure 2.2 Instagram function: hash-tag, geo-tag location, source: Instagram Press blog, 2017. 9.

(18) Each user can also have social interaction such as giving “like” or commenting to ask about photo composition and editing to other users on Instagram. Because of these interactions, Fallon (2014) argues that there is an interactive exchange between the “feed and stream” on Instagram which enables users to see other and adopt others image. Consequently, many homogenized aesthetic similar photos are circulating. More generally, as mentioned before, most people have created their persona and impression management on their photography (Lo and Mckercher, 2015). To create that impression, people decide to put on their own tastes, standards, requirements, attitudes, and preference. And Instagram has fulfilled the needs, with one-stop photo editing, cropping or adding a filter to enhance attractiveness before posting. In addition, these filtered images do not claim “this is how it looked” but rather “how I wanted it to look” or “how I felt it looked” (Fallon, 2014). In addition, to get a perfect image, people would have the options to choose the specific lenses, use a tripod, and find the best angle. Many websites offer “How to Take Good Photos for Your Instagram”, which said to “increase the exposure”, “find your sweet spot”, and many more. So, users with the best photo will get many likes and followers. Then automatically user starts to compete for their Instagram’s aesthetic look for getting many likes. Hence, I argue the aesthetic of photography is important on social media. Instagram as a social media application required people to share their photos on the networks. It means that technology embodiment was engaged in a creative play of identity and expression with the Instagram technology. Manovich and Tifentale (2016) call this situation “competitive photography” which is a competition among Instagram users to make their photos more appealing. It is not a professional photography; it is also not a family photography. Vice versa, with the non-competitive photography, users post casual photos without caring about the number of “likes” or followers. However, both types of photography record author’s experience over time. Manovich and Tifentale (2016) argued Instagram user is a narrator using an Instagram platform to tell a story through images. Moreover, finding one’s own style is an important feature of competitive photography. Marwick (2015) gives an example of Hannah Pixie Snowdon, a tattoo artist with dark hair and big eyes who posts her artwork, tattoos – to inspire her followers and position herself as cutting-edge cool. Marwick noted people who have significant cultural capital as subcultural trendsetters are popular. Those are the example of the most popular stream that is directed by some 10.

(19) people who express interesting styles. They produce content with a specific theme and reach targeted audience. Finally, it all offers aesthetic sensibility.. Impact of Instagram on Tourism Having talked about tourist gaze and the performances, in this section I would discuss the impact Instagram has on tourism. Some research reveals that Instagram has altered tourist’ photographic practices. Diane (2016:5) argues the tourists’ impression of destinations came from the popular culture and social media. It is proved from her research between tourists’ photograph and the film. Diane explores the way tourists represent Monument Valley in images. The research took different images sources; fourteen tourists, five hundred images with monument valley hashtag and seven amateur photographers. The tourists and photographers were asked what their motivation are and what they want to capture about Monument Valley (how they represent it). And the result shows the iconic images of the highway, the Mittens and the Artist’s Point Vista representing Monument Valley. Diane argues that there is a closed circle of representation in tourists’ photography, with visitors capturing the images they have previously seen as representative of the destination (Diane, 2016). Through tourists’ practices, photograph and social media, specific places can be popular. The repetition of the photograph at a specific site of consumption helps tourists mark or give a sign to the places as part of the tourists’ experience. Moreover, MacCannell (Rose, 2013) argues there is an empirical relationship between a tourist, a sight, and marker or called “tourist attraction”. MacCannell points a marker as a piece of information about a sight can come from any source such as travel guides, postcards, brochures and many more. And these markers play a role to let tourists recognize the sight. Rose (2013) gives an example of picture on Instagram as a marker and part of gazing. Such as tourist holding macaroon from Ladurée in Paris or taking an Instagram picture at an “ice bar” in Barcelona. Rose also argues that tourist practices, photograph, and social media work together to create the full experience of a specific place. She gives an example of traveling to Munich for the spring festival and traveling to Belgium for the “sensation white” concert. The photos of food which is associated with the place to visit also become popular such as Paris where we can see croissants and chocolate eclairs;. 11.

(20) London, fish, and chips. The other Instagram’s research is written by Nina Smit (2017). It also examines the relationship between tourists’ photography and tourism. Smit tried to find out the construction of @lovegreatbritain Instagram account through their content during the referendum of Britain which voted to leave the European Union. The research uses multimodal discourse analysis which combines critical discourse analysis and visual semiotic analysis. And it examines the ten most popular and ten least popular photos, hashtags and caption to find the answer. The result shows Britain’s image is a city with history, heritage, and nature for tourists. Most of the photos were taken on England, with only five photos of Scottish location and no photos of Wales. However, there are many studies that focused on the narration of place rather than tourist performance. As mentioned before, now tourists are busier performing rather than gazing because they have to show their performances through photography. Endesor (1998) reveals that tourists said: “the Taj is amazing but boring, come on, let’s do the photo so we can get outta here”. Tourists are becoming active performers. Moreover, the Dinhopl and Gretzel (2016) research said the presence of selfie made the self the object and focused on the photography than the place or other tourists’ attraction. Specifically, the research wants to illustrate how tourists become players in the game of directed viewing and create, produce and circulate some featured gesture/ pose (Dinhopl and Gretzel, 2016). In the end, performances play and give a meaning to the ways that we enact ourselves, individually and collectively and reproduce social formation and norms. The performances allow tourists to make new narratives of their own travel.. 12.

(21) CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY. Introduction In this research, I tried to identify and analyze the representation of three popular travel bloggers. I intended to use mixed method which combines netnography analysis and interview. First, I used netnography as the primary tool to analyze the content in their Instagram including captions, photos, and comments. Next, to make the analysis richer and having more comprehensive understanding, secondary data were used to support the primary data. It is taken from videos that bloggers post as additional information and news articles related to the study which render analysis and discussion complete. This chapter will include three sections: research method, data collection and analysis, and data sample. I will discuss what analysis tools I used, how I choose travel bloggers as my research subject, and how I intended to sample and analyze the photos to look into what kind of narrative stories that travel bloggers create and how they influence the followers.. Netnography for Understanding the Three Bloggers Kozinets (2014) explained netnography is a methodology that provides the researcher with the use of computer-mediated communication to understand and ethnographic representation of cultural phenomenon. In this research, netnography allows me to probe into the bloggers’ performances in a holistic way and the reasons why they are economically successful. With observational approach, netnography analysis allows researcher to explore and observe the data on the internet efficiently, comprehensively, and systematically. Kozinets (2014) also mentioned netnography emphasizes the shortening of distances between time and space, which means that it is also less costly and streamlined. Netnography also enables researchers to naturally analyze the interactions between bloggers and followers because followers are one of the factors that influence this analysis. Followers contribute to and assess the fame of the bloggers.. 13.

(22) Kozinets (2014) suggested there were some procedures to conduct the netnography methods. (1) Researchers must define research topics or questions. The detailed research field grants the specific identification of research sites. (2) Next, researchers should decide the research sites and data collection. Researcher may become participants of research, or non-participatory while observing the data. It depends on the research needs. (3) Moving on to the data analysis stage, with open coding method, netnography can organize, code, and label many different types of data into same codes. In addition, researchers should be considering the cultural context while interpreting data so that it is easy to conceptualize data. (4) Finally, the output of a netnography offers understanding of cultural phenomena.. Identify Bloggers through Phinemo.com – recommend for Top 3 Female Travel Bloggers. Observe picture, caption, and comments. (January 2016- January 2019). Classified into different context. Figure 3.1 the step of the research process. Interview The interview method is adopted to offer deeper information which cannot be gained from the netnography analysis. The interview was conducted to understand the bloggers’ making-meaning process of their travel narrative. It is important to know their motivation of the performances. Considering the research ethics, I requested their permission about this research. Three top bloggers were requested to participate in an interview. I had sent the request by email and the instant direct message on Instagram. Trinity’s assistant replied that Trinity accepted my interview. However, the other two bloggers did not response. The interview was conducted by phone and took 30 minutes. The interview was recorded and ran smoothly. Although the internet call technology can reach the interviewee easily, to avoid some technical call problems such as unstable connection, I called via international roaming call. Before the interview, I had read the background. 14.

(23) of the research participant to list questions which correspond to the research questions. As refer to Detje’s question interview list (2017), the questions for the interview in this research were divided into five sections. The first three parts include the motivation and the meaning of being a travel blogger, the process of the shooting, creating, and designing travel photos, and engagement with the followers. Specifically, in the second parts the interview questions include how bloggers travel, what kind of activities they to produce a story through a photo, for example starting from going to one place, taking photo, choreographing the poses and expression then turning them into a photo, and after that, going home to edit and post it on social media. In the last part, the questions also inquire about female travel bloggers paying much of attention to creating impressions.. Data Collection and Analysis Kozinets (2014) argued when choosing a field site to study, researchers should favor communities that (1) are more “research questions relevant”, (2) higher “traffic” of postings, (3) larger numbers of discrete message posters, (4) more detailed or descriptively rich data, and (5) more between-member interaction of the type required by the research question. Therefore, in this research, all the data collection came from three Indonesia female travel bloggers’ Instagram accounts and met those criteria, which will be discussed in the following section. The data included caption, images, and the comments. They were collected for purposive sampling and considered if they were significant and relevant to the purposes of the research. Those data were picked for rich meaning and symbolic representation. As Kozinets noted, netnography is based primarily on the observation of varying degree textual discourse. Hence, I sought the connection between caption, text, and the comments, and then I classified them into different contexts of each blogger. The chosen data were retrieved from January 2016 to January 2019. In recent years, bloggers have been making much effort on setting up, managing, and maintaining their Instagram’s content, and some of them even become full time bloggers. They actively travel. They intend to create and upload two to three images per day as their Instagram’s contents. They begin post at least one content a day consistently. They aim to engage with their followers as active bloggers, so their followers will not be missed. It is noted that in recent years, some bloggers start to. 15.

(24) accept sponsorships from organizations and some companies; while other bloggers constantly do partnership and produce contents. By making a lot of progress and growing up in these years, their followers also increased dramatically.. The Travel Bloggers Under Focus Many travel bloggers in Indonesia have contributed to the national tourism industry and spread travel information. They became trendsetters and influenced people through their travel writing and photos. Out of thirty-one Indonesia female travel bloggers recommended from Phinemo.com – I have chosen to focus on the following bloggers. Phinemo.com is Indonesia online travel media. Phinemo.com focused on listing female travel bloggers, while other media list men or celebrity travel bloggers. So, I chose to follow Phinemo.com which mentioned the female travel bloggers who have roles in spreading some traveling information and became the most followed travel bloggers on Instagram. This website also pointed out these female travel bloggers could give inspirations for us to travel by posting on their Instagram. These bloggers who have high followers have Instagram feeds all about travel but fewer photos of daily life or other random photos, and they are not celebrities. I choose female travel bloggers because the Instagram data shows most Instagram’s users are women (68%) (Businessinsider.com, 2014). The top content on Instagram is about fashion, beauty, and travel. On the other hand, Seligson (2016) on her article (Why Are More Women than Men on Instagram) said because Instagram provides power to modify “appearance” while women are more likely to showcase their appearance and put effort into reputation management (Seligson, 2016). There is another reason why I choose female travel bloggers. Chen (2008) saw the reasons why female travel bloggers like traveling are self-growth, learning and how they reflect on self-challenging. As quoted from Cockburn- Wooten, solo traveler or backpacking means a way for self-discovery by reflecting on “self” and “other”. Female solo travelers and backpackers are compelled to be more sensitive and culturally aware of the local cultures of their destinations. Chen argued feminism allows a woman to be independent and much freer, and they can do whatever they want to do. This is in line with what one of my research subjects emphasizes on a woman solo traveler, @kadekarini.. 16.

(25) In her conclusion, Chen summarized some characteristic of the female travel bloggers: 1. Have a flexible schedule, 2. have a wanderlust life, 3. experience the culture, 4. recognize the identity of others. Chen also concluded about the writing style of female travel bloggers. Bloggers like to create romantic, wandering, and fancy travel space and have a large amount of visual representation. Moreover, the writing style sometimes construct subjectivity and reflect on the travel experience.. The Profile of the Travel Bloggers Before I analyze their Instagram galleries, first I will introduce and give a description of the three travel bloggers in my study. They are full time travel bloggers. They start from blogging on the website. They like to travel and write. Each travel bloggers characteristic is different. They are from different background, single with high education. The range of the age is between 25-45 years old. As travel bloggers who have many followers and brands, companies and even government have asked help to promote products through their photos. Actually, all the collaboration system works through an exchange of interest. Companies usually offer free trip (all-in) for travel bloggers, and in return travel bloggers need to create and publish the content on their social media. They usually post pictures with captions and add some hashtags. Some companies allow the bloggers to write freely and unrestricted, but for the photos sometimes some companies direct the bloggers to post in a certain way. For more explanation, we’ll discuss more how they give their performances through their posts on Instagram on the chapter four. My first subject is @marischkaprue. Her full name is Marischka Prudence. She used to be a journalist and became a host of travel TV program. She left her job and focused on full-time travel blogging. As in July 2019, she has up to 110,000 followers on Instagram. On her Instagram bio, she writes she is a happy diver and travel blogger. A "happy diver" is showed from her top content about diving. Her Instagram feeds are filled with underwater views. We can find her diving with sea dwellers, like corals, jellyfishes, sharks, and big whales. Most of her feeds are in nature which sometimes features her. Her stunning photos and clear photos composition make her Instagram photos look aesthetic. Next, @trinitytraveler is the author of book and blog of “The Naked Traveler”. The word "Naked" is a pun word from Indonesian word “nekad” which means. 17.

(26) something undisguised or blatant. Her easy and reckless writing style makes her become Indonesia’s leading travel writer and travel blogger which inspires other people. She claimed that her recklessness to travel around the world has made her a famous travel blogger. Now until July 2019, she has up to 102,000 followers on Instagram. Trinity’s Instagram content is dominated by nature view. Her photos portray cityscapes and architecture buildings. We can find her photos with her signature pose which is raising her legs above the surface of the water. Last is @kadekarini, who is an independent and solo travel blogger. She is passionate about solo traveling and shares her thoughts and inspires other people about solo travel. She likes to show her solo traveling photos around the world on Instagram. Now she has up to 134,000 followers on Instagram (also noted until July 2019). Her Instagram feeds look aesthetic, minimal, soft, warm, and has “signature” tone color of the photo like yellowish or sunlight color. She mentioned that she edits the photos with brighter and warmer colors. Her Instagram photo galleries offer warm, sunny and dreamy travel destinations. Her photos exhibit natural, beautiful places and are integrated with nature. Besides the signature tone color, she also has signature photo poses such as her back facing the camera or looking away from the camera. Overall, Marischka and Kadekarini Instagram photo galleries look professional. Manovich (2016) pointed out professional photos are “good photography” with proper composition, focus, greyscale, color balance and interesting subjects. Manovich also argued for years that digital camera has produced “good photography” within the algorithms focus on a detected face, sharpen photo or balance greyscale, and etc. On the other hand, we can also edit and fix the composition manually, so each photo can look different. This is what happened on Marischka and Kadekarini’s Instagram content which look more designed and aesthetic than Trinity's Instagram content. They categorized into Instagram class, a typical class that adopt aesthetic by add some of artistic on their feeds.. 18.

(27) Figure 3.2 @Marischkaprue’s. Figure 3.3 @Trinitytraveler’s. Instagram Profile, source:. Instagram Profile, source:. @Marischkaprue. @trinitytraveler. Figure 3.4 @Kadekarini’s Instagram Profile, source: @Kadekarini. 19.

(28) Principles of Coding As I mentioned above, each blogger’s Instagram content feeds offer photos about landscapes, cultures of Indonesia and other countries and their personal experiences. Moreover, they engage in emotion and aesthetic through storytelling. Over the sixmonth observation (June 2018 – December 2018), more categories have emerged based on the purpose of the research questions. First, I compared between landscape and people. The result showed that bloggers mainly took photos of landscape. Then I compared self-photos with group photos. There were more self-photos than group photos. In accordance with my focus on the bloggers’ performances, I divided the photos into three categories: self-photos with landscape, self-photos with activities, and selfphotos with product placement. There are more self-photos, or portraits of the self, than landscape photos. It showed that their experiences are more important rather than showing scenery only. This type of photos entailed intimate emotions and bloggers of their own experiences to the followers. The categorization found that self-photos with scenery on oriented was the greater number found from their performances. They embody their action through the narration of places. Self-photos with landscape refer to an image portray of Indonesia or other countries. Bear in mind, these travel bloggers have cooperated with organization tourisms to promote the sightseeing spots. Consequently, the bloggers are likely show those places as product and embed themselves in the frame from a wide angle. Next, many self-photos serve the purpose of product placement. Some bloggers endorse or recommend the products. People may trust bloggers because of their expertise and engagement. The endorsed product is often placed in self-photos with a scenery; the tourist places may serve as a promoted product. Besides, some bloggers offer travel-related products, such as hotel, accommodation, food, clothes, beauty product and camera. Last, it is about self-photos with activities, the images only show the action. For example, bloggers take a shot of diving or swimming in the sea. Below is the detail of table categorization. In the next chapter, I will discuss exhaustively about how each blogger performed with illustrations in different categories and their characteristic performances.. 20.

(29) Image code. Subject. Marisckha. Trinity. Kadekarini. Self-photos with landscape. Indonesia. 53. 16. 21. Other countries. 32. 68. 71. Hotel, accommodation. 9. 3. 4. Travel related product: travel insurance, coupon,. 7. 0. 3. Food. 8. 1. 12. Clothes/ beauty. 6. 8. 8. Camera. 5. 0. 2. Diving. 25. 4. 2. Cable car, ship. 10. 2. 4. Other activities. 11. 6. 7. Self-photos with product placement. bank. Self-photos with activity. Table 3.1 Subjects in Self-Photos. Creative Process They have professional team to help them operate their Instagram account. Their Instagram’s feeds produce their own travel photos and daily activities photos. As Marischka mentioned on the blog, she has two work partners at her team. Her boyfriend is a photographer who help to capture her activities. And the other partner is responsible for handling the social media contents. They also gain travel experiences from blog, like Trinity said that she had started blog at 2005, as time goes by, she already has hundreds of thousands of followers and then become the most influential person in social media. Two bloggers, Marischka and Kadekarini’s Instagram like to use filters. Some of cases, they collaborated with camera or edited software company to promote their filter products. The photographic performances show some creativity and artistic sense. For example, concepts such as diagonal composition, which is taking photos from 60 to 90 degrees angle from the below or the above, and more and more were shown on bloggers’ Instagram. They try to explore different angles and compositions of the photos. Then on the post-production, they specifically adjust the contrast or add some filters in third. 21.

(30) party application. In fact, some photos elements such as filtered photos and the sites are leading to get more likes and followers. Bloggers compete to make beautiful color, light and contrast to attract the followers but still have their own style. The other type of “artsy” photos is three bloggers doing the same pose which “plandid”, standing back and facing away from the camera where they engaged with the sites and looked like finding a breathtaking view that makes them enjoy it. Actually, this kind of performances poses are majorities and are guaranteed to boost likes while the featured poses are unique, personalized, and have distinct effects. It can conclude performances as form of playful ritualized behavior: partly constrained, partly innovative (Haldrup and Larsen, 2010). And here, the photographic performances of poses give different story on how they create impression on the social media. Bloggers do various postures at multiple angles of the sites with different narratives. For sure, the photographic performances make bloggers take a lot of effort on making photos. They seek beautiful objects, sites, even wait for the sunset to produce the best photos. For example, Kadekarini captioned the best sunset appeared when the boat was late to pick her and her friends. In other instance, Kadekarini, who is a single traveler, took tripod to make it easier to capture her-self. In this photo, she used a chair as her photo prop and sit on the chair with one of her hand lying on the back of the chair. The below is the photo behind-the-scene regarding how she took picture for herself. It is not only inserting photos into the Instagram posts. Now bloggers have to create good impression on social media. The addition of social media makes bloggers have duty to take and edit photos. It is just mandatory for the bloggers to create visual appearance. For those who give good impression, nice images will become references for people to pick out their next holiday destination.. 22.

(31) CHAPTER IV THE CONSTRUCTION OF PERSONA THROUGH INSTAGRAM. This chapter explores how the three travel bloggers under focus successfully represent their personal stories of traveling by showing their own characteristics which also have become one of the strategic self-branding that make bloggers successful. Hence, these strategies formulate certain “travel imaginaries of female travel blogger” for people to start gazing. Each blogger is recognizable through ideal sign and symbols by their authentic characteristics (Baruah, 2017). The sign of self is also constantly reproduced to show everyday practice and social performances. This section will be divided into three discussions. First, I will describe bloggers’ representation on Instagram and how they construct the “sign” and the meaning of the “sign”. It will analyze and discuss the narratives that they provide. Secondly, I will concern on the visual technique that bloggers use to compose the visual elements, which relates to the next discussion about sponsorship. This will be explained further in relation these three elements are identified as bloggers’ major practices which also impact bloggers to represent their travel idea. The following findings discuss different followers have been inspired by each blogger’s characteristic, identity, and authenticity.. Marischka: The Conscious Travel Blogger This section explores the sign that makes Marischka the central focus of her photos. Her pictures make a point about her own style. There was the personalization of style on Marischka’s Instagram feeds. In addition, by doing that, I argued Marischka has taken preferences and produce her personal style. In the discussion, I will comment on her taste and authentic characteristic on hotels, products, and other recommendations for her followers. Besides, by accentuating colorful hair and being well-dressed, she attempts to promote her picture and produce a distinctive style. Marischka provides her own preferences, serves as a tastemaker, and presents her style of traveling an inspiration.. 23.

(32) Come with Me and Feel What I Feel... Photos become a way for Marischka to extend her view and show her travel experience. She defines what “has to be seen” and even what “has to be photographed.” The “comewithme” photo pose is an example Marischka depicts in her personal characteristic, which often produces excitement. On October 10th, 2017, she posted a photo with a frame of her boyfriend’s hand and herself reaching for it with the caption, “Come with me to the fresh natural of Tanggedu waterfall.”. Figure 4.1 The poses of “comewithme” of Marischka’s version. Marischka’s Instagram feeds often reflect her personal interest, perspectives, and experiences. The visual feature centers on her so her followers will focus on her. Besides, using the words “comewithme,” she directly asks followers to join her and to feel what she feels. She personalizes stories with the aesthetic photos and text describing her emotions. The use of words of color and weather is most frequent, such as “a perfect blue day and perfect clouds in Raja Ampat…” Sometimes the use of “color” and “weather” becomes “romanticized” to reinforce the beauty and strip it of unfavorable circumstances of the scenery such as bad weather and polluted sea (Yui and Ip, 2008). Thus, overall, the photos look clearer, brighter, and more appealing. By doing so, she sets up a way to performing the self. She always appears in the visual frame. It reflects her style and part of her personality. It portrays images of joy,. 24.

(33) smiles, and traveling fun. Moreover, on her profile bio, she introduces herself as a happy diver—she defines that clearly enough when we see her Instagram’s photos full of smiles, enjoyment, etc. With the center of self, her photos often feature her, no matter if they are selfies, group photos, or event pictures. In addition, through the combination of the promotion of personality and product, she acts like a guide of traveling lifestyle. She features on some traveling activities and destinations on her Instagram feeds. Bear in mind that Marischka is the kind of travel bloggers who receive payment from a variety of companies to do commercials. The product examples include the best hotels to accommodate in, things to bring during travel, and many more. She wrapped it with her personal stories, creative and unique in the visual and text aspects. An example is given below from her post on July 5th, 2018.. Figure 4.2 Marischka posed with props to offer and enhances followers’ allure. What I prepare for a fun beach hopping in Belitung, also a gigantic burger to make sure we won't be starving 😁 Will spend a few days here in Billiton Beach Tent, a nice private hut that also feels like glamping with turquoise beach right in front of our "tent", it really feels private but actually not far from the city and the airport, it's a new property of @billitonhotel ❤ Went to Belitung with @belitungwonder #BelitungWonder #BeachTentBilliton. 25.

(34) Using “I” words and some personal taste preference, Marischka refers to herself and uses techniques to attract her followers. She acts like a recommendation for us to use some props as like she does to enjoy activities in Billiton Beach Tent. In addition, on visual element, the choreographies of the object about the activities on the photo engaged more activeness and playfulness. Thus, it prompts her followers to leave comments such as “so fun,” “excited,” and many more. The other personal taste that Marischka constructs is recognized from the hair and costumes she wears. She coats her hair with color and dresses well, and she successfully fascinated her followers. Followers are impressed with her beautiful face and the cute colorful hair. Her hair becomes a point of interest in the photo. For instance, words like “pretty” and “cute” regularly appear in the comments section. Meanwhile Marischka tries to engage with her followers by replying with thankful words and love emoji to show her love to her followers. Although Marischka is neither a celebrity nor a model, her beautiful face has attracted followers. She tries to engage images with herself as the center. Thus, she attempts to establish a trendsetter of traveling lifestyle. It is like the replication of television and tabloid magazine, whether or not it looks “realistic” and “authentic.” Thus, by re-presenting herself this way, she has commodified herself as the object of gaze. It aims to personalize travel photos by adding a personal touch. She tries to give the impression of herself. Overall, she tries to create her performances by showing her full body picture rendering a personalized, dynamic and sexualized image (Uzzel, 1984). The combination of the subject, poses and good photos becomes the salience which entices her followers to gaze at her Instagram’s feeds. By applying those elements on her photos, a playful and attractive Instagram’s feed is created. As result, she tries to serve and distinguish her style from others and stays consistent with it.. Dramatization of Portrait In this section, I will discuss how Marischka makes her photos desirable and aesthetic. However, I am not going to talk about deeper explanations about some specific technique that bloggers use as I did not get specific information about that. Instead, I found Marischka would mobilize on different camera positions, angle and poses and use photo manipulations that impact what she wants to show.. 26.

(35) As mentioned, she likes to place her body in the whole scenery. Thus, the predominant of visualization of her Instagram’s photos induce her followers to focus. She shows different shots from extreme long shot, medium to close up according to what she wants to advertise. In most cases, she mostly uses wide shot to depict herself and the landscapes. For example, her photos reveal that she pretends enjoying the view by staring at the scenery rather than face the camera. She wants her followers to know the scene she’s taking at. Hence, the exotic locales and herself became great significance in her Instagram’s photos. In other words, the background of the places becomes secondary to the faces. However, when it comes to sponsorship for products, she mostly uses medium shot to show close enough for the things she promotes. In the medium shot, she also manifests part of her faces and body clearly, for example, the commercial of the drinks product that bring the freshness after traveling. It is amazing that after an exhausting traveling, she still looks good in photos. As the posts shown below, she said there’s another way to feel cooler and fresher by enjoying the drink TehJavana. So as to advertise the products effectively and represent the relaxing feeling, she needs to keep fresh look while traveling on the hot beach.. Figure 4.3 The close-up shot of the commercial drink’s product. 27.

(36) For bloggers, it cannot be denied that some photo manipulations are considered to improve appearance. For example, in Marischka’s photos, photo manipulations are achieved by some technical retouching, such as adjusting the colors, contrast or white balance. It is unavoidable that there are many obstacles or some technical problems which make the photos not good enough. Especially, taking underwater photos is not easy and needs technical skills. So, she needs to retouch or revise photos to make them more satisfying. Besides, I also found that Marischka has been using photos editing to create imaginary account through story-telling and powerful emotion of the caption. Moreover, she intends to entice her followers. These additional effects dramatize the photos. On her posts, Marischka enhances followers’ interest with adding the special effect of stars on the picture. She wants her followers look at her pictures in unique way with a bit touch of addition of stars and considers them creative and artistic.. Marischka’s Powerful Personality Traits As I have analyzed, Marischka’s personality are so influential to her followers that she can monetize it. She successfully creates the image of herself, and the number of her followers is increasing. Thus, in natural manner, her followers feeling amazed and attracted, her followers are greatly influence by her such as being curious with her hair style, swimsuit she wears and her daily travel essentials. In the meantime, she launches her own line to sell swimsuit, float board and all things for travel as utilizes her Instagram account to create brand. Besides, a lot of brand also sponsor her. Since using bloggers becomes the most effective way marketing, now companies or travel brands are using travel bloggers as their marketing tools. It is proven that bloggers show real images and give reviews of their travel experiences, so people look forward to taking reference from bloggers rather than an advertisement or traditional celebrities. Unlike celebrities, bloggers have a direct relationship with their audience – they have emotional ties, instead of a parasocial relationship (Marwick, 2016). The term “micro-celebrity” coined by Marwick can be used to describe the impact of a message from Marischka. It also became the anxiety for the second travel blogger, Trinity. Marischka like to create sponsored posts. A lot of brand such as travel agencies, hotels, beverage business, and even makeup brands have paid her to do advertisement. In addition, her endorsement often shows her. 28.

(37) preferences for relaxation and pleasure-seeking. For example, she recommends probioc spray, which help to moisture skin to her followers in order to keep fresh like her.. Figure 4.4 Marischka gets a sponsor and promotes the product. Trinity: A Travel Expert by Experience Next, my second case study, Trinity takes steps like an “expert” of traveling and inspires her followers with her trusted experience. Most of the followers refer to Trinity as a role model with brave and impressive travel stories, they wish they could become Trinity to travel around the world. The bio profile of Trinity’s Instagram presents her as Indonesia's leading travel writer whose life story has been made into a movie. Moreover, she is an author of 14 books including "The Naked Traveler" series. Based on the description above, as a travel writer, she has covered lots of topics about her experiences, information about the places, some tips and trick when she travels. She has travelled to many countries, met new friends and locals, and experienced different cultures. Her rich knowledge of traveling was put into the stories. Meanwhile, all her journeys are written on the blog, in a series of books and in a movie. To Trinity, she doesn’t have to be a model or actress. 29.

(38) to be on the magazine cover and wins reputation. Instead, because of her reckless characteristics and her capable of writing, she became a pioneer of female traveler in Indonesia.. When the Photos Replace the Text I will discuss how Trinity highlights her best travel writing but faces the challenge of using a new medium Instagram. Meanwhile she is well-known as a travel writer, recently she faces the problems that nowadays people are reading less. She has to write a book to earn money (Trinity’s blog, 2018). Moreover, she claimed that her followers are not paying attention more to the written text, even the written of the caption on Instagram. Therefore, followers like to see photos more than text. In fact, she needs to post an aesthetic photo to attract the followers and gets high engagement when showing her faces. Trinity must do that to connect and engage with her followers. Hence, her Instagram’s travel photos are dominated by “self-portrait”. This imbalance between self-photos and travel photo are represented on her Instagram. It is in line with Dinphol and Gretzel’s (2016) research that now tourists are searching for the self. At the beginning, actually Trinity prefer to photograph beautiful places that she has visited rather than herself (like she claimed below). She took photo just for complementary photos on her written blog. Meanwhile, many people visited her blog and said “no pict= hoax”, it means there is no evidence of her picture “at the scene” and the truth of articles that she has written is not proved. So, she finally decided to take photos of her and post them. In the portrait, she tended to place herself at the center of the photos. As a matter of fact, she gets many likes if the photos feature her whether she acts silly and funny expressions that we will discuss more on the visual composition. Her followers would look at Trinity’s self-pics with interest.. 30.

(39) Figure 4.5 Trinity stated she takes picture of her-self. “If it’s not because of Instagram, I would never have a picture like this. I remember in early 2000s when I started my blog at naked-traveler.com, I never posted picture of myself. Then Facebook came, then Twitter came, then many people doubted whether I really travel because I almost never had pictures of myself in any destinations. Until Instagram came, it changes how we take pictures, how we travel, even many establishments deliberately create Instagramable spots or foods. Frankly, I'm still an old school who reluctantly posts self-picture – even too lazy to take pictures when I travel - but apparently the engagement is higher when I'm in the picture and sometimes it becomes something I have to do. Any thought?”. However, but some followers still agree that stories are more important than picture. Her followers respond that they still care about the stories that Trinity made. “I’m personally enjoying your stories more than your selfie pic. Your stories make who you are today. The selfie pic is just a momentary hype, soon it will be gone, but your stories and writing remain. Just my two cents... and i’m still waiting for your next book with your unique sorta “nyeleneh” way to make a journey way beyond exciting and fun.” (@tien_senga, March 16, 2018). 31.