Urban Communication: Image, Space, and Media Autumn 2013 Wednesday 4:00 PM Studio 527 Lecturer: Tae-Sik Kim Office Hour: Wed 10:00 – 11 40 AM & 2:00 – 3:40 PM Contact Information: beinkid@mail.muni.cz Ø Course Objectives This course examines communication patterns in the urban environment. A city is a typical interdisciplinary space where humans, technologies, and cultures interactively form a variety of communicative actions. Grounded in the understanding of the role of urban space as media, this course looks closely at how urban spaces represent (are represented by) everyday communications. This course covers a variety of issues in urban communication, ranging from urban branding to neoliberal exclusion in urban space. Throughout the course, students will discuss how urban spaces connect/disconnect/reconnect people. By reading a variety of research articles assigned in the course and participating in class discussions, students learn to widen their perspectives on urban space, society, and communication and to develop their own research projects focusing on communicative activities in the urban environment. § Comprehend the role of urban space as media. § Develop strategic ways of thinking to improve urban communicative capability. § Review and analyze a variety of research articles on urban communication. § Find important themes and methods of urban research. § Lead insightful discussions. § Develop a research project by applying sociocultural experiences. Ø Syllabus Week 1. Course introduction Week 2. Urban Communication: Theories and Practices Week 3. Theme 1. Urban Branding – 1) Making a Place Attractive Week 4. 2) Sustainable Urban Space Week 5. 3) Urban Branding and the Media Week 6. Theme 2. Urban Representation – 1) Urban Semiotics Week 7. Reading Week Week 8. Workshop: Group Strategic Planning, Short Presentations and Discussions Week 9. 2) Urban Borders Week 10. Theme 3. Media and Urban Space- 1) Media and Cities Week 11. 2) Cyber(urban) Space Week 12: Class Conference 1. Week 13. Class Conference 2. Ø Literatures Reading Articles: See, below. Ø Teaching Methods The format of the course is a combination of brief lectures and controlled discussions of various assigned readings. All students are expected to read all articles assigned and to develop appropriate discussion questions. Each student is a discussion leader for an assigned week. Students submit a group research paper with 2-4 colleagues (topic of student’s choice in consultation with instructor; minimum 20 pages including references, figures, and tables). Ø Assessment Methods Response Paper (30 x 8 = 240) (Submit 3 discussion questions by noon the day before each class with the exception of Week 1, 8, 12, and 13 / No Late Paper Accepted) One Discussion Leader (100) One Presentation (60): Week 12 or Week 13 Group Strategic Planning (200, Work with 2-4 Colleagues, Choose a town/city, Find a communicative happening in the city, Evaluate it, and Suggest future directions. Visual materials are welcome. A 3-4 page statement should be submitted) Group Research Paper (400): Due- Midnight, Monday 6. January. 2014 (Late Paper – Subtract 5% for each day after the due date) Total: 1000 A: 900-1000 B: 800-899 C: 700-799 D: 600-699 E: 500-599 F: -499 Ø Study Materials All materials, with the exception of book chapters available in the library and articles available online, will be provided in PDF format. Week 2. Urban Communication: Theories and Practices Georgiou, M “Media and the city: Making sense of place” International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 6.3 (2010) Drucker, Susan. “Urban and Suburban Communication in the Digital Age” Cronin, Anne M. "Researching Urban Space, Reflecting on Advertising A Photo Essay." Space and Culture 14.4 (2011): 356-366. Week 3. Theme 1. Urban Branding – 1) Making a Place Attractive Kavaratzis, Mihalis, and Gregory J. Ashworth. "City branding: an effective assertion of identity or a transitory marketing trick?." Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 96.5 (2005): 506-514. Jensen, O. B. “Branding the Contemporary City- Urban branding as Regional Growth Agenda?” Plenary paper for Regional Studies Association Conference ’Regional Growth Agendas’ Week 4. 2) Sustainable Urban Space Kokosalakis, Christina, et al. "Place image and urban regeneration in Liverpool." International Journal of Consumer Studies 30.4 (2006): 389-397. Gold, John R., and Margaret M. Gold. "Olympic cities: regeneration, city rebranding and changing urban agendas." Geography compass 2.1 (2008): 300-318. Week 5. 3) Urban Branding and the Media Greenberg, Miriam. "Branding Cities A Social History of the Urban Lifestyle Magazine." Urban affairs review 36.2 (2000): 228-263. Cronin, Anne M. "Advertising and the metabolism of the city: urban spaces, commodity rhythms." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 24.4 (2006): 615-632. Week 6. Theme 2. Urban Representation – 1) Urban Semiotics Gaines, Elliot. "Communication and the semiotics of space." Journal of Creative Communications 1.2 (2006): 173-181. Kim, Tae-Sik. "Three faces of Chinese modernity: nationalism, globalization, and science." Social Semiotics 21.5 (2011): 683-697. Shortell, Timothy and Krase, Jerome, “Place, Space, Identity: A Spatial Semiotics of the Urban Vernacular in Global Cities” ESA Research Network Sociology of Culture Midterm Conference: Culture and the Making of Worlds, October 2010. Week 9. 2) Urban Borders Howell, Ocean. "Skatepark as Neoliberal Playground Urban Governance, Recreation Space, and the Cultivation of Personal Responsibility." Space and culture 11.4 (2008): 475-496. Smith, Michael Peter. "Transnational urbanism revisited." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31.2 (2005): 235-244. Week 10. Theme 3. Media and Urban Space- 1) Media and Cities Morris, Brian. "Un/Wrapping Shibuya: Place, Media, and Punctualization."Space and Culture 13.3 (2010): 285-303. MLA Hartmann, Maren. "The changing urban landscapes of media consumption and production." European Journal of Communication 24.4 (2009): 421-436. Week 11. 2) Cyber(urban) Space Jeffres, Leo W., and Carolyn A. Lin. "Metropolitan websites as urban communication." Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication 11.4 (2006): 957-980. Crang, Mike. ’Cyberspace as the new public domain.’, in Urban diversity : space, culture and inclusive pluralism in cities worldwide. (2010) Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press ; Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, pp. 99-122. Hudson-Smith, Andy. "Digital Urban-The Visual City." (2007).