Platform urbanism and digital spectacle: the urban politics of online influence
Type: Virtual Paper
Day: 2/25/2022
Start Time: 8:00 AM
End Time: 9:20 AM
Theme:
Sponsor Group(s):
Digital Geographies Specialty Group
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
Organizer(s):
Carwyn Morris
, Amy Zhang
, Asa Roast
,
Chairs(s):
Amy Zhang, University of Manchester
; ,
Description:
Over the past decade, urban studies scholars have explored the growing interface between digital media and the production of urban space (Graham, 2020; Kitchin and Dodge, 2011; Leszczynski, 2019). But since the early-2010s, the rise of mass user-generated content platforms for the sharing of images, videos, and place-based content (Instagram, Tiktok, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, etc) has produced a new landscape of interactions between user-generated content, online influence, urban infrastructures, and imaginaries (Rodgers and Moore, 2020; Rose and Willis, 2019). Amidst this, a new media ecology has emerged around the construction of digital spectacle, online influence, and “internet celebrity” (Abidin, 2018). Digital spaces now serve as key sites for the articulation of place-based subjectivity and urban desires, and afford new ways of interacting with and understanding the city (de Souza e Silva, 2017).
This session seeks to explore how this emerging media ecology focused on digital spectacle and celebrity interacts with and potentially influences the construction, perception, and contestation of urban space and urban political economy (Femenia-Serra and Gretzel, 2020). These concerns are particularly relevant to the urban spaces under the global influence of Chinese and US urban and digital infrastructures, where spaces are transformed on the street and in photo editing suites to serve spectacle, profit, and fame through their consumption on digital platforms such as TikTok, Douyin, and Instagram. Notably, within China the rise of “internet celebrity (wanghong) urbanism” (Zhang, Morris and Roast, 2021) highlights how online influence has the potential to shape the interaction between digital spectacle, platform urbanism, and the political economy of urban life. Spaces of urban consumption and spectacle are being consumed online, but questions around the politics, power relations, and economics of digitally mediated urban spectacle remain under-explored.
Presentation(s), if applicable
Xiaochen Yu, ; Local Culture,Dining Spectacles,and Social Platform in Local Image Circulation: The Case of Wenheyou Restaurant,Guangzhou |
JURAK KIM, ; How the locals make everyday space for tourism place: A case of local hosts of Airbnb Experiences |
Yi Yu, ; Can TikTok Promote a Healthier Ageing Paradigm? A Case Study of Older Digital Celebrities from China |
Non-Presenting Participants Agenda
Role | Participant |
Introduction | Amy Zhang |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Platform urbanism and digital spectacle: the urban politics of online influence
Description
Virtual Paper
Contact the Primary Organizer
Amy Yueming Zhang - yueming.zhang@manchester.ac.uk