Investigating heritage sites through the lens of social media
Abstract
Today, our understanding and experience of heritage sites have been reframed by the advent of social media and the ubiquitous use of smartphones that offer more participatory ways of interacting with heritage. The lifespan of a heritage site is highly concerned with how it is understood and experienced by visitors. This study aims to investigate a heritage site and its participatory culture through the lens of social media and how a certain heritage site could be understood by these online networks. The historic city of Shiraz packed with several monumental buildings and heritage sites has been chosen as the case study of this research. Three social media platforms of Flickr, 500px and Instagram were investigated during 2015 and their photos of Shiraz were downloaded for analysis. The analysis of more than 186 images from these websites has provided an opportunity to investigate how the historical district of Shiraz is remembered in the eyes of social media users. Based on the initial photo audits, Nasir-al-Molk Mosque with more than 74 published images was the most published building and therefore was selected for an in-depth photo survey analysis. The Nasir-al-Molk Mosque images were studied regarding the physical and spiritual qualities of its building and how they contribute to its popularity among social media photographers.
Keyword : heritage, urban design, architecture, social media
How to Cite
Mahmoudi Farahani, L., Motamed, B., & Ghadirinia, M. (2018). Investigating heritage sites through the lens of social media. Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 42(2), 199-211. https://doi.org/10.3846/jau.2018.7057
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
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Bomanian, M. R., Momeni, K., & Soltanzadeh, H. (2011). Study the innovations and developments of tile decorations and motifs in Mosques-schools of Qajar Era. Scientific and Research Journal of Negareh, 18.
Boyd, D., & Heer, J. (2005). Vizster: visualizing online social networks. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the International Symposium on Information Visualization (InfoVis’05). Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cameron, F., & Robinson, H. (2007). Digital knowledgescapes: cultural, theoretical, practical, and usage issues facing museum collection databases in a digital epoch. In F. Cameron & S. Kenderdine (Eds.), Theorizing digital cultural heritage: a critical discourse (pp. 165-191): MIT Press Scholarship Online.
Chen, H., & Kelliher, A. (2011). Conversational lives: visualizing interpersonal online social interactions. Online Communities and Social Computing, 6778, 241-250. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21796-8_26
Connerton, P. (1989). How societies remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Economou, M. (2015). Heritage in the digital age. A companion to heritage studies, 215-228. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118486634.ch15
Fotis, J., Buhalis, D., & Rossides, N. (2012). Social media use and impact during the holiday travel planning process. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, 1-12.
Garrod, B. (2007). A snapshot into the past: the utility of volunteer-employed photography in planning and managing heritage tourism. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 2, 14-35. https://doi.org/10.2167/jht018.0
Gruzd, A., Staves, K., & Wilk, A. (2011). Tenure and promotion in the age of online social media. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. New Orleans, LA.
Haji-Ghasemi, K. (2004). Mosques: Rozaneh * Beheshti University.
Heinrichs, J. H., Lim, J. S., & Lim, K. S. (2011). Influence of social networking site and user access method on social media evaluation. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 10, 347-355. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.377
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Junco, R., & Chickering, A. W. (2010). Civil discourse in the age of social media. About Campus, 15, 12-18. https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.20030
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Lazarinis, F. (2015). Cataloguing and classification: an introduction to AACR2, RDA, DDC, LCC, LCSH and MARC 21 Standards. Cataloguing and Classification, 225-232. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100161-5.00012-9
Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Social media in tourism and hospitality: a literature review. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30, 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2013.750919
Lo, I. S., & McKercher, B. (2015). Ideal image in process: online tourist photography and impression management. Annals of Tourism Research, 52, 104-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2015.02.019
Logan, W., Kockel, U., & Nic Craith, M. (2016). The new heritage studies: origins and evolution, problems and prospects. A companion to heritage studies, 1-25.
Lowenthal, D. (2005). Natural and cultural heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 11(1), 81-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527250500037088
Lu, W., & Stepchenkova, S. (2014). User- generated content as a research mode in tourism and hospitality applications: topics, methods, and software. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 119-154. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2014.907758
MacCannell, D. (2013). The tourist: a new theory of the leisure class: Univ of California Press.
Mahmoudi Farahani, L., & Lozanovska, M. (2015). The social life of historical neighbourhoods: case study of a Middle Eastern city, Shiraz. Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 39(3), 176-187. https://doi.org/10.3846/20297955.2015.1088416
Malita, L. (2011). Social media time management tools and tips. Procedia Computer Science, 3, 747-753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2010.12.123
Motamed, B., & Mahmoudi Farahani, L. (2018). The evaluative image of the city through the lens of social media: case study of Melbourne CBD. Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 42(1), 24-33.
Munar, A. M., & Jacobsen, J. K. S. (2014). Motivations for sharing tourism experiences through social media. Tourism Management, 43, 46-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.01.012
Nov, O. (2009). Information sharing and social computing: why, what, and where? Advances in Computers, 76, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2458(09)01001-8
Nov, O., & Ye, C. (2008). Community photo sharing: motivational and structural antecedents. Twenty Ninth International Conference on Information Systems. Paris, 2008.
Oghabee, M. M. (1999). Encyclopedia of monuments in Iran in Islamic period/ 3, Historical Mosques. Tehran: Hozeye Honari.
Osatuyi, B. (2013). Information sharing on social media sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 2622-2631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.001
Palmer, D. (2010). Emotional archives: online photo sharing and the cultivation of the self. Photographies, 3, 155-171. https://doi.org/10.1080/17540763.2010.499623
Porter, B. W., & Salazar, N. B. (2005). Heritage tourism, conflict, and the public interest: an introduction. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 11(5), 361-370.
Reeves, K., & Plets, G. (2015). Social needs and community identity. A Companion to Heritage Studies, 15, 203. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118486634.ch14
Rose, G. (2001). Visual methodologies: an introduction to the interpretation of visual materials. London: Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publication.
Sarzotti, M. (2011). Increasing the value of cultural heritage by using social media. Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal – Annual Review, 5. https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1874/CGP/v05i06/38210
Shankar, R. (2011). Factors influencing online social interactions. Paper presented at the Online Communities and Social Computing. Orlando, FL, USA.
Shaw, A., & Krug, D. (2013). Heritage meets social media: designing a virtual museum space for young people. Journal of museum education, 38, 239-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/10598650.2013.11510774
Silberman, N. (2008). Chasing the unicorn? The quest for ‘essence in digital heritage. In Y. Kalay, T. Kvan, & J. Affleck (Eds.), New heritage: new media and cultural heritage. Routledge.
Silva, T. H., Vaz De Melo, P. O. S., Almeida, J. M., & Loureiro, A. (2014). Large-scale study of city dynamics and urban social behavior using participatory sensing. Wireless Communications, IEEE, 21, 42-51. https://doi.org/10.1109/MWC.2014.6757896
Tang, J., Wang, M., Hua, X. S., & Chua, T. S. (2012). Social media mining and search. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 56, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-011-0822-1
Timothy, D. J., & Boyd, S. W. (2006). Heritage tourism in the 21st century: valued traditions and new perspectives. Journal of heritage tourism, 1(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17438730608668462
Treem, J. W., & Leonardi, P. M. (2012). Social media use in organizations: exploring the affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Communication yearbook, 36, 143-189.
Urry, J. (1990). The tourist gaze. Leisure and travel in contemporary societies. Collection theory, culture & society. London: Sage Publications.
Urry, J., & Larsen, J. (2011). The tourist gaze 3.0: Sage.Wyrwoll, C. (2014). Social media: fundamentals, models, and ranking of user-generated content. Wiesbaden: Springer Vieweg.
Zhou, L., & Wang, T. (2014). Social media: a new vehicle for city marketing in China. Cities, 37, 27-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2013.11.006
Zumthor, P. (2006). Atmospheres: architectural environments; surrounding objects: Boston: Birkhäuser.
Amaral, F., Tiago, T., & Tiago, F. (2014). User-generated content: tourists’ profiles on TripAdvisor. International Journal of Strategic Innovative Marketing, 01, 137-147.
Andzulis, J. M., Panagopoulos, N. G., & Rapp, A. (2012). A review of social media and implications for the sales process. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 32, 305-316. https://doi.org/10.2753/PSS0885-3134320302
Anuradha, P. (2015). A frame work for preserving privacy in social media using generalized Gaussian Mixture Model. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 6, 68-71. https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2015.060711
Ariel, Y., & Avidar, R. (2015). Information, interactivity, and social media. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 23, 19-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2015.972404
Bemanian, M. R., & Nikoudel, F. (2014). Evaluation of daylight-catching and daylight providing methods in MOSQUES. Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture, 1(3), 60-74.
Bohme, G. (2014). Urban atmospheres: charting new directions for architecture and urban planning. In C. Borch (Ed.), Architectural Atmospheres: on the experience and politics of architecture (pp. 42-59). Birkhauser.
Bomanian, M. R., Momeni, K., & Soltanzadeh, H. (2011). Study the innovations and developments of tile decorations and motifs in Mosques-schools of Qajar Era. Scientific and Research Journal of Negareh, 18.
Boyd, D., & Heer, J. (2005). Vizster: visualizing online social networks. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the International Symposium on Information Visualization (InfoVis’05). Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cameron, F., & Robinson, H. (2007). Digital knowledgescapes: cultural, theoretical, practical, and usage issues facing museum collection databases in a digital epoch. In F. Cameron & S. Kenderdine (Eds.), Theorizing digital cultural heritage: a critical discourse (pp. 165-191): MIT Press Scholarship Online.
Chen, H., & Kelliher, A. (2011). Conversational lives: visualizing interpersonal online social interactions. Online Communities and Social Computing, 6778, 241-250. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21796-8_26
Connerton, P. (1989). How societies remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Economou, M. (2015). Heritage in the digital age. A companion to heritage studies, 215-228. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118486634.ch15
Fotis, J., Buhalis, D., & Rossides, N. (2012). Social media use and impact during the holiday travel planning process. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, 1-12.
Garrod, B. (2007). A snapshot into the past: the utility of volunteer-employed photography in planning and managing heritage tourism. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 2, 14-35. https://doi.org/10.2167/jht018.0
Gruzd, A., Staves, K., & Wilk, A. (2011). Tenure and promotion in the age of online social media. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. New Orleans, LA.
Haji-Ghasemi, K. (2004). Mosques: Rozaneh * Beheshti University.
Heinrichs, J. H., Lim, J. S., & Lim, K. S. (2011). Influence of social networking site and user access method on social media evaluation. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 10, 347-355. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.377
Ivanov, I., Vajda, P., Lee, J.-S., Goldmann, L., & Ebrahimi, T. (2012). Geotag propagation in social networks based on user trust model. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 56, 155-177. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-010-0570-7
Jaafarloo, M. E. (2015). Reviewing Qajar era architectural decoration with an emphasis on European designs in the works of Shiraz. Cumhuriyet University Faculty of Science (CSJ), 36(4).
Junco, R., & Chickering, A. W. (2010). Civil discourse in the age of social media. About Campus, 15, 12-18. https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.20030
Kalay, Y. E. (2008). Preserving cultural heritage through digital media. In Y. Kalay, T. Kvan, & J. Affleck (Eds.), New heritage: new media and cultural heritage (pp. 01-10). Routledge.
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons, 53, 59-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003
King, L., Stark, J. F., & Cooke, P. (2016). Experiencing the digital world: the cultural value of digital engagement with heritage. Heritage & Society, 9(1), 76-101. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159032X.2016.1246156
Lazarinis, F. (2015). Cataloguing and classification: an introduction to AACR2, RDA, DDC, LCC, LCSH and MARC 21 Standards. Cataloguing and Classification, 225-232. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100161-5.00012-9
Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Social media in tourism and hospitality: a literature review. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30, 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2013.750919
Lo, I. S., & McKercher, B. (2015). Ideal image in process: online tourist photography and impression management. Annals of Tourism Research, 52, 104-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2015.02.019
Logan, W., Kockel, U., & Nic Craith, M. (2016). The new heritage studies: origins and evolution, problems and prospects. A companion to heritage studies, 1-25.
Lowenthal, D. (2005). Natural and cultural heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 11(1), 81-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527250500037088
Lu, W., & Stepchenkova, S. (2014). User- generated content as a research mode in tourism and hospitality applications: topics, methods, and software. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 119-154. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2014.907758
MacCannell, D. (2013). The tourist: a new theory of the leisure class: Univ of California Press.
Mahmoudi Farahani, L., & Lozanovska, M. (2015). The social life of historical neighbourhoods: case study of a Middle Eastern city, Shiraz. Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 39(3), 176-187. https://doi.org/10.3846/20297955.2015.1088416
Malita, L. (2011). Social media time management tools and tips. Procedia Computer Science, 3, 747-753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2010.12.123
Motamed, B., & Mahmoudi Farahani, L. (2018). The evaluative image of the city through the lens of social media: case study of Melbourne CBD. Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 42(1), 24-33.
Munar, A. M., & Jacobsen, J. K. S. (2014). Motivations for sharing tourism experiences through social media. Tourism Management, 43, 46-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.01.012
Nov, O. (2009). Information sharing and social computing: why, what, and where? Advances in Computers, 76, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2458(09)01001-8
Nov, O., & Ye, C. (2008). Community photo sharing: motivational and structural antecedents. Twenty Ninth International Conference on Information Systems. Paris, 2008.
Oghabee, M. M. (1999). Encyclopedia of monuments in Iran in Islamic period/ 3, Historical Mosques. Tehran: Hozeye Honari.
Osatuyi, B. (2013). Information sharing on social media sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 2622-2631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.001
Palmer, D. (2010). Emotional archives: online photo sharing and the cultivation of the self. Photographies, 3, 155-171. https://doi.org/10.1080/17540763.2010.499623
Porter, B. W., & Salazar, N. B. (2005). Heritage tourism, conflict, and the public interest: an introduction. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 11(5), 361-370.
Reeves, K., & Plets, G. (2015). Social needs and community identity. A Companion to Heritage Studies, 15, 203. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118486634.ch14
Rose, G. (2001). Visual methodologies: an introduction to the interpretation of visual materials. London: Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publication.
Sarzotti, M. (2011). Increasing the value of cultural heritage by using social media. Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal – Annual Review, 5. https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1874/CGP/v05i06/38210
Shankar, R. (2011). Factors influencing online social interactions. Paper presented at the Online Communities and Social Computing. Orlando, FL, USA.
Shaw, A., & Krug, D. (2013). Heritage meets social media: designing a virtual museum space for young people. Journal of museum education, 38, 239-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/10598650.2013.11510774
Silberman, N. (2008). Chasing the unicorn? The quest for ‘essence in digital heritage. In Y. Kalay, T. Kvan, & J. Affleck (Eds.), New heritage: new media and cultural heritage. Routledge.
Silva, T. H., Vaz De Melo, P. O. S., Almeida, J. M., & Loureiro, A. (2014). Large-scale study of city dynamics and urban social behavior using participatory sensing. Wireless Communications, IEEE, 21, 42-51. https://doi.org/10.1109/MWC.2014.6757896
Tang, J., Wang, M., Hua, X. S., & Chua, T. S. (2012). Social media mining and search. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 56, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-011-0822-1
Timothy, D. J., & Boyd, S. W. (2006). Heritage tourism in the 21st century: valued traditions and new perspectives. Journal of heritage tourism, 1(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17438730608668462
Treem, J. W., & Leonardi, P. M. (2012). Social media use in organizations: exploring the affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Communication yearbook, 36, 143-189.
Urry, J. (1990). The tourist gaze. Leisure and travel in contemporary societies. Collection theory, culture & society. London: Sage Publications.
Urry, J., & Larsen, J. (2011). The tourist gaze 3.0: Sage.Wyrwoll, C. (2014). Social media: fundamentals, models, and ranking of user-generated content. Wiesbaden: Springer Vieweg.
Zhou, L., & Wang, T. (2014). Social media: a new vehicle for city marketing in China. Cities, 37, 27-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2013.11.006
Zumthor, P. (2006). Atmospheres: architectural environments; surrounding objects: Boston: Birkhäuser.