Urban Folklore and Backpackers: Presentation of Urban Folklore in Digital Media
Mehmet Anil Unal
article (Uluslararası, Hakemli) | Yazar(lar): Mehmet Anil Unal | Yıl: 2025 — Özet: The widespread and convenient accessibility of digital media has enabled various aspects of daily life to be presented as content through digital media tools. While such content has become the objects of digital consumption, urban cities
The widespread and convenient accessibility of digital media has enabled various aspects of daily life to be presented as content through digital media tools. While such content has become the objects of digital consumption, urban cities with rich cultural diversity have attracted the attention of digital content creators. Notably, backpackers, who embody the modern concept of travelers, share the cultural life of the cities they visit through digital channels. With advancements in communication technologies, the concept of the traveler has evolved, with backpackers now equipped with digital creation tools. The increase in travelers promoting urban folklore on YouTube has heightened interest in digital content related to urban folklore. The study aims to examine the content on urban folklore published by backpackers, who have gained popularity through digital media content on their digital channels. For this purpose, I analyzed the most recent content from ten backpackers, who create digital content for YouTube, by using the document analysis method. The analysis revealed four thematic headings, and the prominent cultural products were evaluated accordingly. Thus, while reaching the thematic headings of food culture, economic differences, belief culture and communication with the people of the city, backpackers' transmissions on the cultures of the geography they traveled through stand out. In this sense, it is observed that backpackers have brought a new form to the phenomenon of being a traveler and urban folklore is conveyed to the audience in a multidimensional way. It is suggested that backpackers, who are one of the names of the concept of travelership transformed in the digital world, become an important actor of the new production, consumption and transmission process in the context of digital media and that the issue should be discussed in a multidimensional way.