Old Town, Scottsdale, Arizona, is a modern-day old Western town that boldly claims to transport visitors back to the days of cowboys and Indians. Yet, Old Town is a representation of an old Western town that never existed as depicted. By engaging in ethnographic methods of observation and interview, this study analyzes how the visual communication of cultural and historic identities affects visitors’ experiences in the area as well as their understanding of the American Old West. It argues that the visual narratives of the space serve as a simulacrum that attracts visitors to the area while simultaneously failing to achieve what it promises.
BaudrillardJ. (2001). Simulacra and simulations. In PosterM. (Ed.), Jean Baudrillard: Selected writings (pp. 169-187). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
2.
BojeD. M. (1995). Stories of the storytelling organization: A postmodern analysis of Disney as “Tamara-land.”Academy of Management Journal, 38, 997-1035.
3.
ChalfenR. (2011). Looking two ways: Mapping the social scientific study of visual culture. In MargolisE.PauwelsL. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of visual research methods (pp. 24-48). London, England: SAGE.
4.
CharmazK. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
5.
DickinsonG. (1997). Memories for sale: Nostalgia and the construction of memory in old Pasadena. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 83, 1-27.
6.
DickinsonG.OttB. L.AokiE. (2005). Memory and myth at the Buffalo Bill museum. Western Journal of Communication, 69, 85-108.
7.
EmersonR. M.FretzR. L.ShawL. L. (1995). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
8.
GeertzC. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books.
9.
KvaleS. (2008). InterViews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
10.
LindlofT. R.TaylorB. C. (2002). Qualitative communication research methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
11.
LymanC. M. (1982). The vanishing race and other illusions: Photographs of Indians by Edward S. Curtis. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.
12.
MacCannellD. (1973). Staged authenticity: Arrangements of social space in tourist settings. American Journal of Sociology, 79, 589-603.
