Social media and the negotiation of travel photo authenticity in the making of Wanghongjingdian in China

Abstract

Social media have reconfigured place-making in tourism so that industry-led place promotion through professionally produced media representations is nowadays intertwined with bottom-up processes involving online influencers and ordinary people. The emergence of wanghongjingdian (i.e. internet-popular tourist attractions) in China is a case in point. This article aims at contributing to our understanding of the production of wanghongjingdian through a focus on the bottom-up negotiation between influential bloggers and ordinary users, especially on the “authenticity” of travel photos. We conducted a virtual ethnography and visual and textual analyses of 290 blogs on Xiaohongshu, a highly popular visual-oriented platform in China. Three authentication strategies, which relate to existing theoretical conceptualizations of authenticity in nuanced manners, are identified, and the negotiation process between influencers and ordinary users is marked by a critical participatory culture, multiplicity of practices, and individuality-in-community. These features help us understand the production of wanghongjingdian on Chinese social media.