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    "story_id": "mp-2026-07-26-027",
    "source_story_id": "tmp-story-backrooms-digital-tourism",
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    "section": "weird-machine",
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    "headline": "The Backrooms Became a Place Without Existing",
    "slug": "the-backrooms-became-a-place-without-existing",
    "dek": "Tourism researchers describe the participatory online myth as digital legend-tripping: people collectively visit, map and extend an impossible destination.",
    "summary": "Tourism researchers describe the participatory online myth as digital legend-tripping: people collectively visit, map and extend an impossible destination.",
    "body_text": "An analysis in Annals of Tourism Research treats the Backrooms as a form of para-terrestrial or digital dark tourism. Instead of traveling to a physical haunted site, participants create stories, images, maps and games that make an invented liminal world feel visitable and collectively maintained. This is an interpretive tourism study, not evidence that the fictional place exists or a measurement of platform traffic.",
    "why_it_matters": "Tourism researchers describe the participatory online myth as digital legend-tripping: people collectively visit, map and extend an impossible destination.",
    "limitations": [
      "This is an interpretive tourism study, not evidence that the fictional place exists or a measurement of platform traffic."
    ],
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    "first_published_at": "2026-07-26T09:00:00.000-04:00",
    "modified_at": "2026-07-26T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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        "text": "Tourism researchers describe the participatory online myth as digital legend-tripping: people collectively visit, map and extend an impossible destination.",
        "source_ids": [
          "source-2026-07-26-016"
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        "qualification": "This is an interpretive tourism study, not evidence that the fictional place exists or a measurement of platform traffic."
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    "tags": [
      "Backrooms",
      "digital culture",
      "tourism research",
      "online myth"
    ],
    "image_url": null,
    "corrections": []
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-07-26-016",
      "title": "ScienceDaily: The Backrooms as digital legend-tripping",
      "publisher": "ScienceDaily",
      "url": "https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260726015254.htm",
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      "published_at": null,
      "accessed_at": "2026-07-26T08:35:02.238-04:00",
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  "corrections": [],
  "publisher": {
    "name": "The Machine Press",
    "url": "https://themachinepress.com",
    "description": "A daily newspaper for the age of artificial intelligence."
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  "cite_this_report": {
    "title": "The Backrooms Became a Place Without Existing",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-07-26T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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