An investigation of cultural objects in conflict zones through the lens of TripAdvisor reviews: A case of South Caucasus

Abstract

This study is an investigation of how cultural sites and objects in the former conflict zones of South Caucasus are constructed in user-generated narratives in TripAdvisor reviews and images. An analysis of these reviews and images was found to demonstrate the embodied orientation of reviewers’ narrations, wherein the disputed nature of the cultural sites is mainly voiced in the form of dissatisfaction with the socio-economical situation and services. This study suggests that the forgotten nature of frozen conflicts engendered an erosion of and disconnect from cultural heritage, ties and significance for those who fled the contested areas.

The role of cultural heritage in visitor narratives of peatlands: analysis of online user-generated reviews from three peatland sites in England

“…Munar and Ooi (2012) have explored the contribution UGR make to heritage tourism and the understanding of new, digitally mediated, experiences of heritage. UGR from Tripadvisor have been used to explore visitor perceptions and experiences of heritage sites, including historic buildings (Zhang and Pearce 2019;Chester 2020;Hodsdon 2020), museums (Dumbraveanu, Craciun and Tudorico 2016;Carter 2016;Su and Teng 2018), UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Renwick 2017;Corpas and Castillo 2019;Stoleriu et al 2019), and broader cultural heritage sites and objects (Alexander, Blank, and Hale 2018;Hajibayova 2019;Wight, 2020).…”

Graphic novels through the lens of Goodreads reviews: Artistic, textual, or blend of both?

“…Blair, 1990; Furner, 2007), exploration of users’ language and perspectives may shed light on the role and value of user-generated reviews in complementing traditional representation of resources and facilitating discoverability of knowledge. Language use is relatively reliable over time, internally consistent (Pennebaker, 2011), and may provide valuable insights into the value and authenticity of user-generated reviews in the representation of cultural objects (Hajibayova, 2020). In this regard, language-based measures of personality can be useful for capturing and modeling lower level personality processes that are more closely associated with important objective behavioral outcomes than traditional personality measures (Pennebaker, 2011).…”