REPRESENTATION OF WINTER TOURISM IN DIGITAL MEDIA NEWS: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON ULUDAĞ SKI CENTER

As one of the alternative tourism types, winter tourism is among the remarkable ones increasing market share in both national and global scale. Integrated with tourism marketing, the dynamics of ski sport have become an important tool for local, regional, and national development. Every year, tourism movement of millions of ski lovers in different places has accelerated the competition of creating attractions by mountainous and convenient countries for skiing. Internal competition, societal perception and representation of winter tourism destinations in countries have been fulfilled by press and media which are positioned as one of the corner angles of winter tourism activities. From this point of view, media and press related visibility and representation of Uludağ, which is one of the most remarkable ski centers in terms of winter tourism history, has therefore constituted the purpose of the present study. Accordingly, by considering the transformation process of traditional media into digital media, 70 news that appeared in digital media between 15.01.2019-15.01.2020 concerning Uludağ Ski Center was examined under 5 parameters via Nvivo software program. Qualitative research method was used in the study and the results revealed that perceptions of attractiveness and popularity of Uludağ gained ground in media and it was promoted under those concepts and that content providers of reported news included 3 news agencies. In addition, it was found out that Uludağ appeared in the news mostly in the first and last quarters of the year, which means unfortunately it could not go beyond being seen only as a winter tourism destination from the viewpoint of media.