Tourism Journalism – Elements of Journalism is a Must

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Tourism Journalism – Elements of Journalism is a Must. Even though tourism journalism is look like a trivial think, a good standard on the elements of journalism should be applied on every tourism journalism writing. Now if you surf in cyberspace, no doubt you will find tourism news content, travel, touring, trips to exotic areas, to unspoiled tourist places. The reason is, the spread of content like this cannot be separated from the increasing use of social media and the level of tourism literacy in Indonesian society, especially young people.

The popularity of tourist attractions like this has made many content providers and news portals uphold tourism journalism as the primary content of their content. Although this kind of journalism is synonymous with travel and tourism, it is claimed that it is not just traveling.

That was the discussion that emerged from the Monthly Discussion of the PSDMA (Center for Alternative Media Studies and Documentation) Nadim of Communication Science Department, Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII). Risky Wahyudi  became the host of the event inviting Nur Rizna Feramerina.

Feramerina is an UII Communication Science student who conducts research on the phenomenon of Tourism Journalism and its current developments. She researched several portals. Apart from research, he is also active in writing on Detik Travel Indonesia.

Elements of Tourism Journalism

Are there any tips or special characters for becoming a journalist or contributing traveling content writer? How many people are there behind the scenes on this travelling website?

That question was asked by Risky Wahyudi, the host  of this discussion program. Feramerina said there were approximately 50 people more, for example in the Travellindo website in which she researched. Even Feramerina is also surprised that there are more than 5,000 contributors of traveling content that they had.

“They also have a contributor group in the Telegram application to foster contributors to produce better, more creative, quality content in accordance with the elements of journalism,” he said.

According to her research, there is no special character to become a writer or journalist for this Travel Writer. All the same. Writing must conform to journalism standards or elements. So you cannot write just randomly without understanding the elements of journalism. So, more than 5000 contributors must also fulfill the principles and basic elements of journalism in writing content with the tourism journalism genre.

Recommendations for Advanced Research on Tourism Journalism

Feramerina and Risky reach the conclusion that not much research has been done on Tourism Journalism. You can do research on this, for example, Risky’s idea, how  traveling websiite manages thousands of contributors, or like Feramerina said, no one has yet compared the content of tourism journalism on various news website.

Different portals, different standards. That’s how important it is to be researched. Feramerina shared her experience writing this travelling content for example. She writes on two portals: detik travel and Travellindo. Both have the same focus, but according to her experience, Travellindo is more selective and rigid in writing content, even photos.

According to her, there are not many references that talk about the genre in this journalism. She herself had to find and trace foreign sources who discussed this. This search finally found results. The primary reference that examines the tourism journalism genre that she is researching is a book entitled Specialist Journalism, edited by Barry Turner and Richard Orange.

Besides discussing technical coverage and how to do this, this main book also contains reflections on the fields of journalism. Such as journalism in sports, culinary, music, law, media, war, art and tourism. This book also discusses including how to write complex data from science research.