The Mediated Metropolis: Anthropological Issues in Cities and Mass Communication

Cinema and audiovisual media are integral to the culture, economy and social experience of the contemporary global city. But how has the relationship between cinema and the urban environment evolved in the era of digital technology, new media and globalization? And what are the critical tools and concepts with which we can grasp this vital interconnection between space and screen, viewer and built environment? Engaging with a rapidly transforming urban world, the contributions to this collection rethink the 'cinematic city' at a global scale. By presenting a global constellation of screen cities within one volume, the book encourages juxtapositions and comparisons across the North and South to capture the global city and its dynamics of exchange, hybridity, and circulation. The contributions examine film and screen cultures in a range of locations spanning five continents: Antibes, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Busan, Cairo, Caracas, Copenhagen, Jakarta, Kolkata, Lagos, Los Angeles, Malmö, Manila, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris, Seoul, Sète, and Shanghai. The chapters address topics that range across the contemporary film and media landscape, from popular cinema, art cinema, and film festivals to serial television, public screens, multimedia installations, and video art.

Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol 93, No. 1, 243-245

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. This content downloaded from 128.83.63.20 on Wed, 2 Jul 2014 13:30:59 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Book Reviews 243 Using Secondary Data" by Tim Brown is most notable for its apologetic tone: the very idea that cultural geographers could or should use quantitative data and methods seems an occasion for lamenting the fact that such data exist, rather than for raising the obvious, reflexive question: What do I want to know, and what is the best way to know it? Sometimes the answer to that question, even when asked by cultural geographers, will be, "quantitatively." To use quantitative data and methods is not necessarily to abandon reflexivity or a commitment to critical knowl? edge production. Sometimes it is just the opposite.

Doctor of PhilosophyEnvironmental Design and Planning ProgramHuston John GibsonIn many academic fields today, cinematic representations are rich sources through which researchers recognize and interpret phenomena. Using cinema as the global form of visual texts is both useful and, to some extent, even necessary in the study of urban phenomena. Geography was the first discipline that continuously attempted to conceptualize the notion of the cinematic city. From then until now, Art, film, media studies, and architecture have considered the relationship between city and cinema. In recent years, although scholars with a background in urban disciplines have addressed this interdisciplinary topic, little in the way of effective, continuous utilization of movies in urban studies has occurred. The failure is not necessarily appreciation, but capability; arguably, the lack of an urban-oriented methodology is an important reason why urban studies has not paid deep attention to the cinema to d...

2016

Cinema and audiovisual media are integral to the culture, economy, and social experience of the contemporary global city. But how has the relationship between cinema and the urban environment evolved in the era of digital technology, new media and globalization? And what are the critical tools and concepts through which we can grasp this vital interconnection between space and screen, viewer and built environment? Engaging with a rapidly transforming urban world, the contributions to this collection rethink the 'cinematic city' at a global scale. By presenting a global constellation of screen cities within one volume, the book encourages juxtapositions and comparisons across the North and South to capture the global city and its dynamics of exchange, hybridity, and circulation. The contributions examine film and screen cultures in a range of locations spanning five continents: The chapters address topics that range across the contemporary film and media landscape, from popular cinema, art cinema, and film festivals to serial television, public screens, multimedia installations, and video art. 'Operating at the intersection of film studies, globalization studies, and urban studies to deliver a powerful, interdisciplinary re-assessment of the role of media and screens in shaping contemporary urban life, this volume addresses issues such as transnational mobility, digital technology, and social inequality … it makes important new connections between the ongoing transformation of cities worldwide and emerging trends in film, television, and new media.' Prof. Christoph Lindner, University of Oregon 'This collection of essays provides a set of innovative, international perspectives on the relationships between cities and screen media in their contemporary, globally networked configurations. It is important reading for anybody with an interest in the dynamics and the tensions of urban culture today.' Prof. Andrew J. Webber, Cambridge University 'Offering an extremely thoughtful mix of established and new voices, this is an intellectually exciting contribution to film scholarship. It adds significant new knowledge and understanding of the links and dissonances between the urban, the local, and the global to shed new light on existing and emerging cinematic cities throughout the world.' Jane Mills, University of New South Wales

Current Urban Studies, 2016

Commercial cinema is a worldwide form of entertainment enjoyed by most of the planet's population and variety of cultures. Films are produced on six continents and marketed successfully internationally. However, cinema is more than a medium for telling stories of adventure, intrigue, comedy and romance. As most of the world's population now lives in cities, many films take place in urban settings, where a large number of those cities' physical and social problems are exposed. Commercial film, then, plays a useful role in determining how such issues can be confronted through the lenses of their many countries and cultures. That is, solutions to urban problems must be culturally sensitive. Moreover, as cities dominate life on planet Earth in the 21 st century far beyond what their population alone would warrant, they are at the core of some of the most influential films of the last century. This paper, then, is significant in that it looks at some of these urban focused films and identifies the universal themes they consider.

Procedia Computer Science, 2011

This session at FET11 explored how the cinematic city could inspire researchers who are working on the transformative applications, concepts and infrastructures that will characterise the next decade. A series of film clips were shown under three broad categories: City as a System; Individual and the System; and Artefacts of the System. After each session a discussion took place among the participants and the emergent themes were recorded on notecards. These were photographed and displayed in a slideshow format for the remainder of the discussions. At the conclusion of the session it was agreed that the portrayal of future cities and the lives of their inhabitants in the cinema can reveal many enduring personal, societal and cultural concerns. These concerns must form the basis of requirements if technologies are to successfully integrate into our private and public lives. © Selection and peer-review under responsibility of FET11 conference organizers and published by Elsevier B.V.

2019

This Special Section argues for a wider recognition of urban media studies-an emerging and vibrant scholarly space for research that permeates the borders of both media/ communication studies and urban studies. Our main motivation and aim is to shed light on the mutually constitutive entanglement of media, in all their multiplicity, and urban phenomena. Before introducing the articles gathered for this Special Section to exemplify this intersectional approach, this introductory article first lays out some of the key elements that help define, though do not exhaust, the field of urban media studies. Moreover, we identify some important developments in both media studies and urban studies that have paved the way to the endeavor, such as non-media-centric approaches to media and relational/processual takes on urban space. We bring together some familiar and emerging models in the formation of urban media studies, even if we envisage this emerging scholarly space as open to further refinements, additions, and modulations, as necessitated by individual research interests and contexts.

Academia Letters, 2021

2013

With the arrival of globalization and digitalization and the intensification of trans-national, trans-urban, and trans-local dynamics, cities, particularly global cities, are now emerging as strategic sites for understanding key economic, political, and cultural dynamics (Sassen, 2010). Myria Georgiou's book Media and the City: Cosmopolitanism and Difference contributes to this literature by focusing on "cultural networks and mediated negotiations of spaces of we-ness, other-ness, inequalities and exclusions" (p. 19) in global cities. Studying the global

Mediapolis, 2018

The essay form, however, because of its commitment to self-reflexivity, is decidedly metahistorical. The questions it raises are not just about history; they amount to philosophical considerations of historiography’s implication in power relations that continue to affect the present time, and considerations of how text and medium alike participate in historiographical discourse.