Vacations

Now that everyone has returned from home and travel for the Thanksgiving break, it seems worthwhile to examine vacations as media. There are a few different reasons for vacations and different types of vacations satisfy these reasons. Sometimes vacations are to relax, which beach vacations, cruises, and resorts are good for. However other times vacations are full of information. Cultural and historical information can be transferred from country to visitor, host to guest or guide to tourist. This makes locations as well as vacations to them an interesting type of media.

Throughout the semester we have repeatedly seen how technology and our digital age evolve how news is delivered via media. Similar ideas apply to travel. It is much easier today to physically travel far distances because of speed and ability to overcome distance, similar to the ability for a message to travel quicker today than in the past. Rather than having the message come to us via media, travel is the media which delivers us to the message.

While you can get messages by going on vacation in the form of learning things the type of vacation can be the message as well. This is similar to how we started the course; the media can be the message. A relaxing cruise or beach vacation has different meaning from a safari full of learning. Regardless of the type of vacation, it can revitalize people for when they return. Thanksgiving break is a nice tease as to what is in store for us during winter vacation a few weeks from now.