Digital Construction of Surabaya's Modern-Heritage Identity: A Visual Semiotic Analysis of Jalan Tunjungan on Instagram

Abstract

This study investigates on how meanings are produced and how the myth of Jalan Tunjungan’s urban heritage identity is being constructed through visual storytelling on social media platforms, specifically Instagram. Agaisnt the backdrop of the expanding digital tourism industry, visual narratives extend beyond their representational function. instead, they become instruments of symbolic power that shape place-branding strategies while simultaneously creating conditions for cultural commodification. Positioned within a constructivist paradigm, this descriptive-interpretive qualitative study analyzes 15 digital artifacts and has been selected through purposive sampling based on the principle of data saturation. To dissect these visuals, we employed a multi-layered analytical framework. This approach integrates Kress and van Leeuwen’s Grammar of Visual Design to examine micro-level visual structures. While Barthes’ semiotics acts to interpret broarder cultural meanings. And lastly, Bordieu’s concept of symbolic power to contextualize the ideological processes underlying the identity construction.
The findings demonstrate that visual storytelling on Instagram discursively naturalizes the myth of Surabaya as a "Modern-Heritage City". This myth is sustained through three main ideological pillars: emotional ideology (nostalgia and therapeutic space), commercial ideology (consumption showcase), and social ideology (spectacular spectacle stage). Our analysis reveals that the selection of technical visual elements is not neutral. Instead, it acts as a practice of power by digital actors (government, community, and commercial entities) in negotiating the destination's cultural capital. Ultimately, this study concludes that these meaning production practices successfully create a dynamic hybrid spatial identity. However, they also leave behind a risk of cultural commodification specifically The Instagrammable Gaze where the depth of authentic historical values is potentially reduced to mere aesthetic commodities to satisfy the experience economy.