Place, Space, and Mediated Communication

Place, Space, and Mediated Communication investigates the human experience in the process of being altered by digitally changing perceptions of spatial relations. Because our belief in a stable reality rests on shared spatial understandings, the disruption of those understandings can be rightly described as ‘context collapse’.

This volume details that phenomenon in a variety of settings. It appears in the new cognitive and spatial complexities of digitally enabled warfare that place in doubt older understandings of the moral relations among combatants. It governs how Iranian videogame creators are re-mapping ideological encounters between the West and Islam. It reflects how gay Parisians in search of intimate connections find themselves digitally liberated from physical menace but facing new relational dilemmas. It is seen in the digital penetration of privacy that once insulated Rio de Janeiro’s affluent classes, now subject to intrusive surveillance. Context collapse has also been a feature of earlier eras of technological change, as when printed images of the Roman basilica of San Paolo fuori le mura began to travel globally in ways that restructured experiences of sacred space. These and other cases in this cross-disciplinary collection of essays show how communication and space are co-constituted, and model exciting new paths of inquiry for researchers.

is suitable for upper level and postgraduate students as well as scholars of media and communication studies. This book may also be appropriate for those studying cultural studies, urban studies, and sociology.