Date of Award

1-1-2019

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Anthropology

First Advisor

Esteban Gomez, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Richard Clemmer-Smith, Ph.D.

Keywords

Outdoor recreation, Social media, State parks, Tourism

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to determine the ways in which signs within social media posts on Instagram and Facebook frame the way that outdoor recreational tourists make decisions about Colorado state parks' locations, services and activities. Surveys were conducted at 6 Colorado state parks in the 2018 spring, summer, and fall months. These surveys asked respondents to answer multiple choice and open ended questions about their social media habits, their outdoor recreation habits, and their opinions about images displayed on Colorado Parks and Wildlife's social media pages.

A total of 93 surveys were collected during the research period. An analysis was done to determine what types of content posted on these social media pages is drawing visitors to Colorado state parks and what decisions these visitors are making in regard to the content they are exposed to online. Individuals traveling to Colorado state parks and participating in activities at these locations are able to utilize past knowledge and experiences along with sociocultural rules and norms to inform their motivations for visiting these outdoor recreational tourism destinations.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Sarah Marie Norlin

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

180 p.

Discipline

Cultural anthropology, Mass communication

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