Spectacle and/as the New Urban Aesthetic

Degen, Monica, and Gillian Rose

Dossiers, no. 1, vol. 8March 30, 2023<March 30, 2023

Spectacle and/as the New Urban Aesthetic

Monica Degen and Gillian Rose

Emphasising the sensory experience of the digitally mediated city, Monica Degen and Gillian Rose propose critical tactics for understanding the everyday power relations of the “new urban aesthetic.”

Dossiers, no. 1, vol. 8March 29, 2023<March 29, 2023

Intentional Wanghong Environments Mediating Urban Futures in Xiongan New Area

Antonie Angerer

Exploring China’s latest megacity, Xiongan New Area, Antonie Angerer shows how social media and urban-digital spectacle have become incorporated into the urban planning process.

Dossiers, no. 1, vol. 8March 28, 2023<March 29, 2023

“Influencers crush Wukang Road”: Creating Wanghong Landscapes in the Former French Concession in Shanghai

Chensi Shen

The former French Concession in Shanghai has become a key destination for tourists and social media influencers. Chensi Shen investigates the area’s cultural symbolism and its new status as an urban-digital landscape.

Dossiers, no. 1, vol. 8March 27, 2023<March 27, 2023

The Urban Attention Economy: How Our Cities Are Rebuilt for Social Media

Petter Törnberg

Urban aesthetics have become social media aesthetics, argues Petter Törnberg. Drawing on research from São Paolo, Törnberg shows how the logics of social media have become integral to the new urban attention economy.

Dossiers, no. 1, vol. 8March 27, 2023<April 20, 2023

Introduction: Urban-Digital Spectacle

Amy Y. Zhang, Asa Roast, and Carwyn Morris

In their introduction to the dossier on urban-digital spectacle, Amy Y. Zhang, Asa Roast, and Carwyn Morris reflect on the complex roles that digital technology and social media play in the production and consumption of urban space.

Deep Dives, no. 4, vol. 7November 30, 2022<January 25, 2023

Wanghong Urbanism: Towards a New Urban-Digital Spectacle

Amy Y. Zhang, Asa Roast, and Carwyn Morris

What happens when a place achieves celebrity status on social media? Amy Y. Zhang, Asa Roast and Carwyn Morris introduce the term “wanghong urbanism” to theorize the construction of urban-digital spectacle and discuss the implications of the phenomenon for cities in China and beyond.

Dossiers, no. 2, vol. 7June 13, 2022<June 13, 2022

Online Patriots and Traitors: The War, Authoritarianism, and State-Sponsored Digital Vigilantism in Russia

Maxim Alyukov

Maxim Alyukov looks at how the Putin regime is encouraging digital vigilantism to crack down on anti-war dissent

Screenshot of one of the short films from 2097: We Made Ourselves Over by Blast Theory. Source: Blast Theory.

no. 3, Q & A, vol. 6July 8, 2021<October 5, 2021

The Mediapolis Q&A: Marcos Dias’s The Machinic City

Tanya Lokot and Marcos Dias

In this installment of our Q&A series, digital media and society scholar and Editorial Board member Tanya Lokot interviews Marcos Dias on his recent book The Machinic City: Media, Performance and Participation.

no. 4, Q & A, Reviewed, vol. 5October 26, 2020<October 26, 2020

Mediapolis Q&A: Germaine R. Halegoua’s The Digital City

Rahul Mukherjee

Rahul Mukherjee leads a discussion with Germaine R. Halegoua on her book The Digital City: Media and the Social Production of Place.

no. 2, Roundtables, vol. 2June 5, 2017<June 5, 2017

The Narrative Landscape of Google Street View

Aroussiak Gabrielian

In this post, Aroussiak Gabrielian explores Google Street View as an experimental medium, asking how it offers us new narrative forms and new subjective possibilities for interacting with our environments.

no. 5, Roundtables, vol. 1December 5, 2016<January 17, 2017

Researching the Urban as a Human Endeavour

Giorgia Aiello

In this fourth roundtable response, Giorgia Aiello suggests that media theory offers a distinctive understanding of the nature and potential of the urban as a human endeavour.

no. 5, Roundtables, vol. 1November 15, 2016<January 17, 2017

Right to the City, or Compulsion to Connect?

Myria Georgiou

In the third essay, Myria Georgiou reflects on the politicized relationships between the right to the city and emergent compulsions to communicate digitally.