A virtual ethnography of the Black Flag Café: A forum for people who travel to dangerous places Victoria Lindsay-Towner A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Bournemouth University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2011 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on the condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and due acknowledgement must always be made to the use of any material contained in, or derived from, this thesis. 2 Abstract This research explores the followers of the book The World’s Most Dangerous Places. These tourists deliberately travel to dangerous destinations where there is a high level of violence due to civil unrest, conflict or war. The research has focused on the Black Flag Café, an online tourism-based community created by the writer Robert Young Pelton, author of the books Come Back Alive and The World’s Most Dangerous Places. This is a case study that has made use of virtual ethnography and descriptive content analysis to explore the forum and its members. The research has identified four factors which influence the forum members’ decision to travel to a dangerous place: a search for self- actualisation through “it” or peak experiences; a desire to improve self-image and to obtain status from travelling to dangerous places; a search for an “authentic” travel experience; and finally their awareness and perception of danger and acceptance of the residual risks involved in travel to dangerous places. The study shows that the forum members enjoy pushing the boundaries of risk, undertaking a form of edgework. The research also explores the forum members’ sense that travelling to dangerous places can result in other benefits including familiarity with death, gaining arousal from risk taking (flow) and the possibility of repeat travel to increasingly dangerous places. The conceptual framework developed from the research displays the danger tourist’s approach to travelling to dangerous places. This framework identifies five benefits which participants obtain from travelling to dangerous places: flow, self-actualisation, improvement to self-esteem, the achievement and/or maintenance of status and familiarity with death. While this framework has been developed for the tourists who travel to dangerous places, undertaking danger tourism, it could equally be applied to other high-risk activities. 3 List of contents 1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 18 1.1 Research aim................................................................................................... 18 1.2 Identifying a research topic: New Year in Kabul.............................................. 18 1.3 Scoping the literature.......................................................................................19 1.3.1 War tourism............................................................................................. 19 1.3.2 Dark tourism / thanatourism.................................................................... 21 1.3.3 During the war tourism............................................................................ 25 1.3.4 Beyond “during the war”.......................................................................... 27 1.3.5 Danger tourism........................................................................................29 1.3.6 Examples of tourism to dangerous places.............................................. 31 1.3.7 Backpacker travel....................................................................................33 1.3.8 Risk and danger...................................................................................... 36 1.3.9 Contributing literature.............................................................................. 40 1.4 Identifying the gap in the literature .................................................................. 44 1.5 Relevance........................................................................................................45 1.6 Thesis contents................................................................................................ 46 1.7 Conclusion .......................................................................................................47 2 The case study context ............................................................................................48 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 48 2.2 Robert Young Pelton .......................................................................................48 2.3 The World’s Most Dangerous Places .............................................................. 49 2.4 A virtual community .........................................................................................54 2.5 The websites: comebackalive.com and the Black Flag Café .......................... 56 2.6 Moderation.......................................................................................................64 4 2.7 Uses of images ................................................................................................65 2.8 Editing posts ....................................................................................................65 2.9 Forum members ..............................................................................................66 2.10 The role of RYP within the forum..................................................................... 69 2.11 Behaviour.........................................................................................................74 2.12 Online identity .................................................................................................. 77 2.13 Avatars.............................................................................................................77 2.14 Usernames.......................................................................................................78 2.15 Signatures........................................................................................................78 2.16 Conclusion .......................................................................................................80 3 Identifying a research method..................................................................................81 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 81 3.2 Finding a method .............................................................................................81 3.3 Undertaking Internet research ......................................................................... 83 3.4 Ethnography ....................................................................................................84 3.5 Virtual ethnography..........................................................................................85 3.6 Gaining access ................................................................................................86 3.7 Participating online .......................................................................................... 88 3.8 Being online ..................................................................................................... 89 3.9 Difficulties.........................................................................................................91 3.10 Obtaining permission.......................................................................................92 3.11 Using informants..............................................................................................93 3.12 Ethical negotiations..........................................................................................94 3.12.1 Regulations / legislation .......................................................................... 95 3.12.2 Informed consent / perceived privacy ..................................................... 95 3.12.3 Use of pseudonyms ................................................................................97 5 3.12.4 Distressing information ........................................................................... 98 3.12.5 Exit strategy ............................................................................................99 3.12.6 Ethical agreement .................................................................................100 3.13 Conclusion .....................................................................................................101 4 Research framework ..............................................................................................102 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................102 4.2 Framework.....................................................................................................102 4.3 Content analysis ............................................................................................104 4.4 Types of data .................................................................................................105 4.5 Data collection ...............................................................................................107 4.6 Identifying dangerous places.........................................................................108 4.7 Sampling........................................................................................................109