Muchazondida Mkono

Despite the surging prominence of literature that explores mobile instant messaging’s (MIM) capacity to leverage transformative pedagogical practices in higher education, studies that unravel the appropriation of MIM to leverage postgraduate supervision in authentic learning contexts are less frequent. Consequently, a gap persists on the nature of postgraduate supervisees’ existential and relational authenticity as they interface with MIM and supervisors during their consultation processes. This study drew on Heidegger’s existential authenticity, a netnography of WhatsApp‐based supervisor–supervisee consultations and in‐depth interviews to unravel how WhatsApp‐mediated postgraduate supervision fosters the social construction of relational and existential authenticity in resource‐constrained contexts. The findings suggest that authentic supervision was constructed through supervisor–supervisees’ negotiation of academic hierarchies, supervisees’ self‐expression and self‐disclosure, their management of moments of anxiety and conflict deflation in ambivalent supervision scenarios. The study recommends that supervisors need to manage the significant yet unrecognised “nervous moments” in technology‐mediated supervision environments, where compression of hierarchy may be conflated with negation of the supervisor’s authority.

When Cecil the Lion was shot in 2015 by the American tourist, Walter Palmer, the story sparked a global “cybermovement” against trophy hunting, questioning its sustainability from a moral-ethical standpoint. Indeed the incident was hailed as a possible turning point for the wildlife tourism industry. It remains unclear however whether a movement of this nature could have any meaningful impact. Thus, 2 years on from Cecil, what has (not) changed, and why? Findings reveal interventions aimed at deterring hunters, tightening international legislation, and furthering research on African wildlife conservation. However, trophy hunting still persists in much of Southern Africa, pointing to the limitations of digital movements. In explaining the limits of these movements, the article applies Social Movement Impact Theory and juxtaposes the divergent, competing moral criteria operating in the international “Cecilgate” context.

Existing research on tourism social media users rarely extends beyond their role as appraisers of tourism and hospitality products. Such research fails to identify the different modes of experience and behavior that these users assume in their cyberspace interactions. This article demonstrates that user interactions entail much more than evaluating products. Using data from TripAdvisor, it identifies five additional user roles that define their experience and comportment online: troll, activist, social critic, information seeker, and socialite. Adopting a netnographic approach, these categories are interrogated to provide a more nuanced understanding of the online user experience in tourism social media space. Further, for each role, we glean the implicit uses and gratifications users seek from using the media. It is argued that the combined enactment of these roles creates a rich repository of experiential narratives that tourism businesses and destination managers can tap into for insights into the modern tourism consumer.

Indigenous tourism researchers have not fully embraced social media as fieldwork sites in their own right. This paper explores, from a social media perspective, the (online) engagement of Indigenous tour operators with tourists, the role of differences in tourist-Indigenous worldviews in the tour experience, and the sustainability implications. Data consisted of 588 tourist reviews and 137 operator responses, pertaining to four Indigenous tour experiences offered in Australia. Findings suggest that dissatisfied tourists expect tours to be run on Western management models, and in response, Indigenous tour operators have the opportunity to act as cultural negotiators online, explaining their own worldviews and cultural approaches. Three components of this cultural negotiation emerged: identifying and embracing worldview differences; delineating the larger cultural context of tours; and, rebuttal of misrepresentations in online tourist reviews. In addition, amongst themselves, tourists educate each other on cultural etiquette and interpretation. From a sustainability perspective it was found that Indigenous tour operator voices are minimally represented in tourism social media – a missed opportunity to correct cultural misconceptions and clarify differences, to “speak” for themselves, creating a stronger, more assertive online voice. Policy interventions to increase Indigenous operators’ participation in social media, including training and assistance, could help.

With the advent of Web 2.0, social media have emerged as new spaces of hybrid interaction, comprising customer-to-customer, as well as customer-to-business/service-provider communicative exchanges. In the best case scenario, social media sites are communities where members find and share information, experience a sense of belonging, and provide mutual support. However, in many instances, the relatively anonymous nature of social media relieves some of the inhibitions of social interaction, resulting in negative behaviours such as harassment (for instance, in the form of trolling), flaming, and hate speech. This paper examines the phenomenon of trolling as a form of online provocation and harassment which targets users (including customers and businesses) in tourism social media spaces. Trolling remains largely unaddressed in the context of tourism (and hospitality) social media. Specifically, drawing data from TripAdvisor and other online media, the paper examines the incidences of (perceived) trolling and considers TripAdvisor's responses to trolling behaviours.