En resa till naturen på reklamens villkor

Sammanfattning: It is commonly believed that we live in a culture that is increasingly permeated by visual images. One category of images that we encounter everyday in different media, and that constitutes a large and growing part of media content, is advertisements. Advertisements also have a specific purpose and the images represent, make meaning of, and convey sentiments about phenomena. In this dissertation, the phenomenon of interest is nature – how is nature represented in travel advertisements? The aim is also to study how the representations are perceived by tourists and how they, in turn, represent nature in their photographs. In order to restrict the scope of the study, travel advertisements for charter trips have been chosen. A semiotically inspired analysis focused on images has been conducted and over a hundred advertisements have been analysed. Interviews with charter tourists have been made. Selected images from advertisements were shown and discussed and the interviewees showed and talked about their photographs. The analysis of advertisements revealed four categories of images of nature. The main differences between the four categories are the degree of authenticity and creative strategy. Simplified, one could say that these images display artificial nature (arranged and controlled, where human artefacts and groups of people are a desirable component); tamed nature (often along the waterfront such as beaches with the presence of many people and characterized by human activities); untamed nature (also along the wa-terfront, but more authentic and with very few people and human objects in view); and accessible wild nature (preferably tropical, long-stretched and seemingly void beaches shown in telephoto shots and at a large distance, with no people). Despite the differences, these images have several features in common which, taken together, form the myth of nature in a travel context. Nature is meant to be the setting for various activities, it is beneficent; there are never any unexpected or unwanted features that can threaten a pleasant experience. Furthermore, nature seems to be an endless resource for people to use without showing any consideration. Thus the status of nature represented in travel advertisements is that of a recreational resource. The interviewees can be described in three ideal types: those who visit nature on terms set by advertisements, those who visit nature on several terms and those who visit nature on terms set by themselves. The ideal types are based on roles in relation to the images of advertising, motive for travelling, preferred type of nature and type of photographs taken.