User:JarrahTree/misinformation

re-working this November 2015 further updating July 2016

To go into Concerns - travel topics - if accepted as topic. (not sure personal angle or more neutral angle)

Most dangerous country and countries - the context and the information

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, travel writers who lived to tell the tale, went into details in books about their journeys and the difficulties. Some tales were harrowing and enough to give the reader the idea I never want to go anywhere x after reading that, but the delay in the travel, and publication of the imformation means sometimes years between the experience and the actual reading.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s a book or two were written about the most dangerous countries in the world, and were coffee table books of the time.

Also in the same era, in various regions, various groups and individuals acquired notoriety for playing on travellers by a range of challenging behaviours. Some were into kidnapping, murder - other were less traumatic, and more into relieving travellers of possessions.

More recent books also look at the countries most dangerous for women to travel in [ | author1=Zirulnick, Ariel | title=The five most dangerous countries for women.(World)(Brief article) | journal=The Christian Science Monitor | publication-date=2011-06-16 | publisher=The Christian Science Publishing Society | issn=0882-7729 ]

| author1=Fergusson, James | title=The world's most dangerous place | publication-date=2014 | publisher=London Black Swan | isbn=978-0-552-77780-3

In the same decade a few friends travelled by land from Europe to Asia - there were even books about the subject... the routes to take and the issues of driving through the middle east and western asia.

Misinformation/checking information

It can be something which grips the fear of those who might book online, who think they are going to stay in a luxurious hotel, across the other side of the world, and when they arrive they find a flea ridden sub standard hotel at the end of the thilthiest lane they have walked down, in the most undesirable neighbourhood, where after checking - the old paper guide books say avoid this area.

The web page read well, and the pictures looked good, and everything seemed ok back at home on the internet.

So how is the process of checking against misinformation best carried out, are there ways of doing something to avoid the traps?

Satire/irony/hoax and sendup information

Moldavia and Phaic Tan

The Australian editorial team who created Moldavia and Phaic Tan created substantial guide books for non existent countries, and some authors over the last millenia have created 'fake' countries and scenarios for the backdrop of their writing - simply to avoid direct references to the places of targets of satire or criticism.

Tourism promotion language and brochures

The semiotics of tourist brochures are in themselves powerful and evocative - the right photo, with the right setting can inspire people to plan holidays to places because the photo and setting appeal to the individuals sense of what they want to see or hope to experience. Tourism brochure manufacturers/designers specifically set the scene.

However there is always a potential for brochures 'misinformation' to be more subtle, less legally inherently 'wrong'

Reliability and inadvertant misinformation

Proof reading - (here on wikivoyage), anywhere - might not have been undertaken, and numbers, words can be inadvertantly wrong.

Place names and places can be changed by authorities, and although not common

Language problems

Sometimes some publishers hasve series of books with words of the country or area being visited.

Individuals who bravely learn a new language and travel to the country, have inadvertantly learnt pronunciation/grammar mistakes that create serious misunderstandings where the language is native.

Translation problems

A whole genre of books have been published of the mis-use of the english language in countries where inventive translation have created funny, sad and sometimes outrageous mistakes with the english language.

Information about previously unvisited locations

Information about specific locations

Information about specific businesses

Anecdote and travellers folklore

Friends of friends anecdotal info

The psychology and social anthropology of kitchens in hostels and similar locations all over the planet.

When context is all but removed

Out of date information

Old guide book information

Never ever underestimate the 'value' of an old or discarded guide book with contents that are not current

Old website information

Bulletin boards - talk pages - message boards

Up to date information

Indicators of information that is suspect

Keeping up to date with travel advice - in the pre-universal internet era, publishers such as Lonely Planet had newsletters that were designed to update travel advice for countries and regions

When all else fails, ask a local

This can be a catch 22 situtation, a local with limited language capacity can as easily misinform as a bad item on the web.

Information, informed information and uninforned information

see also: common scams - very comprehensive series of situations that show how lack of information can be a problem

travel topic - misinformation/checking information - as part of concerns scams - is a part of stay safe