Help or Hindrance? Media Uses and Discourses on Media in Outdoor Sport Tourism

Abstract

Dichotomies opposing the "virtual world" and "real life" persist in common discourses; they are frequent in outdoor sport tourism, where discursive, informational and digitally mediated practices might be viewed as hindering the experience and the contact with the environment. This chapter aims to understand such discursive oppositions among the participants, and to overcome them by documenting the integration of media practices in general within outdoor sport practices. Drawing on empirical work with travelling kayakers, paragliders and rock climbers, the chapter details wary and hostile views on media practices, then contrasts these views by showing how media practices aid or enable the coordination and communication of outdoor sport tourism activities.