Gender Differences in User-generated Travel Photographs on Social Media

Gender Differences in User-generated Travel Photographs on Social Media

This study examines the gender differences in user-generated travel photographs posted onsocial networking services. Using 515 travel photographs—285 generated by females and 230generated by males—from China’s Sina Weibo website, the study analyzes the genderdifferences in the photographs and the geographical distribution differences using ageographical information system (GIS). The results show that there are statistical genderdifferences in terms of four variables: type of landscape, regional attribute, photographicdistance, and number of people in the photograph. In particular, photographs generated bywomen tend to show natural landscapes, while photographs generated by males tend to showcultural landscapes. Additional researches are needed to determine the reason for such genderdifferences, as are advanced differential studies that would consider variables other thangender.