Media Unsustainability; The Relationship between Media Representation and Environmental Sustainability (The Semantic Evolution of Hormoz Island)

Volume 21, Issue 132
June 2024
Pages 31-42

Document Type : Original Research Article

Author

Ph.D. in Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Iran.

Abstract
Problem statement: Media, one of the most powerful contemporary means of conveying and producing meaning, plays an irrefutable role in promoting the tourism industry. Over the last decade, the extensive representation of the “Journey to Hormoz” experience on social media, along with the extensive advertising of tourism media, has resulted in a media narrative that is not based on the reality of the context and has become an “overarching narrative.” The experience of recent years shows that this narrative, which has led to the reproduction of non-native media sub-cultures, has gradually transformed the meaning of Hormoz, which was a historical product of the interaction of the residents with their environment, and has caused the cultural narrative of Hormoz to become “dual.” On the other hand, sustainability, as a knowledge that seeks to preserve values by introducing the concept of “sustainable tourism,” evaluates the effects of the tourism industry.
Research objective: This essay seeks to deal with media representation and environmental sustainability as contemporary and influential issues. Moreover, the existence of two conflicting cultural currents has led to cultural conflict. 
Research method: This research seeks to evaluate the effects of media representation of Hormoz Island from the perspective of sustainable tourism by employing a qualitative method based on literature and field observations. The assumption is that the prolongation of the existing conditions will encounter Hormoz with semantic conflict. 
Conclusion: The findings of this research indicate that the current media approach, which is based on tourism, can be evaluated as anti-sustainable. In other words, the duality in cultural space can make locals and tourists read Hormoz in two different ways, and two conflicting narratives of Hormoz can contribute to the formation of “two different places.” Also, based on the theory of “social construction of reality,” it can be predicted that due to the persuasive logic of non-native media, which is predominant, this reading can prevail over its conflicting narratives and become Hormoz’s dominant construction.

Keywords

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