Insta-Research zum #westweg im Schwarzwald – wie digital repräsentierte Wandererfahrungen auf Instagram mittels quantitativer und qualitativer Methoden untersucht werden können

The Westweg in the Black Forest is Germany’s oldest long-distance hiking trail and very popular among domestic and foreign guests. Through Instagram posts hikers commonly demonstrate the physical exertion of hiking and the scenic aesthetics of the Black Forest. Such posts are an expression of the inseparable interweaving of new media and travel experiences in the digital age. The #westweg functions as a case study to show how digitally represented travel experiences can be scientifically recorded and analysed.By means of quantitative analysis, posts on Instagram are filtered according to the most frequently used hashtags (e. g. #blackforest, #blackforest, #wandern) and emoticons (e. g. trees, smileys), which structure and classify the data material thematically. A subsequent qualitative single image analysis identifies current image practices and constitutions of meaning on Instagram about the #westweg. The analysis procedures highlight the staging of, one the one hand, the landscape as idyllic and, on the other, nature experiences as being situated between effort and enjoyment. Pictorial motifs, some of which date back to the Romantic period, still exist today and are re-appropriated to the contemporary aesthetic of Instagram.