Urban media studies has produced many studies of city branding in connection to tourism. This Roundtable builds on that work but asks a different question: how do cities market themselves to companies or individuals for permanent relocation? Our contributors ask both how cities mediate themselves in order to attract such new residents and how media industries themselves use cities in their recruiting.
Each of the contributors will offer an initial short essay responding to the roundtable introduction below. Following this, the contributors will offer further responses.
Media Industries and City Branding: A Roundtable Introduction (February 16, 2018)
In this roundtable introduction, Lawrence Webb uses the example of Amazon HQ2 to ask how urban corporate and residential relocation campaigns illuminate issues of citizenship and city branding, and poses questions to our participants.
Relocating Mobile Production: Los Angeles & TV’s Spatial Capital Showdown (February 19, 2018)
In this first round post, Myles McNutt discusses how Los Angeles has been forced to rethink its approach to competing in a new television landscape characterized by mobile production.
Lofts, Eats, and Montréal’s Game Industry (February 21, 2018)
In this first round post, Theo Stojanov discusses the arrival of the game industry in Montreal, and its marketing to new workers.
Golden Oak, Fan Engagement, and Disney’s Community Development (February 23, 2018)
In this first round post, Alex Kupfer explores how the promotional films for Disney’s Golden Oak community blur distinctions between resident and fan, employee and family member.
A Deceptive Return to Welfare State Rhetoric in the Marketing Initiatives of Gothenburg (February 26, 2018)
In the final post of the first round, Helena Holgersson and Erik Florin Persson explore Gothenberg’s new promotional films, and trace their attempted resuscitation of older notions of community and government.
Living With the Media Industry City (February 28, 2018)
In the introduction to the second round, Lawrence Webb asks the contributors to consider media industries and the cities they generate from the perspective of those cities’ citizens and users.
TV Happens Here: Negotiating Public Perceptions of Spatial Capital (March 2, 2018)
In this second round post, Myles McNutt discusses the various ways in which cities do and do not transform their status as popular shooting locations into spatial capital.
Headhunters and Funmakers: Game Industry Recruiting à Montréal (March 5, 2018)
In this second round post, Theo Stojanov explores the Montreal game industry’s construction of its ideal recruit in the context of local policies, especially surrounding language.
The Florida Project, Labor Strife, and Life on the Margin of Disney World (March 6, 2018)
In this second round post, Alex Kupfer discusses The Florida Project and recent media coverage of Disney’s labor negotiations in order to highlight the various precarious experiences within the urban peripheries and labor force of Disney.
The Lingering Presence of Richard Florida in Gothenburg’s Future Vision(March 8, 2018)
In the final post of the Roundtable, Helena Holgersson and Erik Florin Persson address the role of Richard Florida’s ideas in Gothenburg’s self-presentation and self-conception.