Research tracks and management
The activities of Geomedia are organized in three research tracks: (1) Mediatization of Space and Culture, (2) Spaces of News Production and Consumption and (3) Tourism and Mobility Studies. These tracks are not exclusive entities but serve as articulations of the Geomedia profile as a whole. Starting in January 2017, Geomedia is led by a management team with representatives from each of the three tracks.
Management Team: André Jansson (Director), Lena Grip (Geomedia Coordinator), Karin Fast (RT1), Henrik Örnebring (RT2), Mekonnen Tesfahuney (RT3)
Advisory board: Stina Algotson, CEO, R&D Fund of the Swedish Tourism & Hospitality Industry (BFUF), Jakob Bjur, PhD , Journalism and Mass communication, KANTAR SIFO/University of Gothenburg, Yvonne Eriksson, Professor, Information Design, Mälardalen University, Jesper Falkheimer, Professor, Strategic Communication, Lund University and Josefina Syssner, Associate Professor, Human Geography, Centre for Municipality Studies, Linköping University.
Research Track 1: Mediatization of Space and Culture - Coordinator: Karin Fast
The development of various geo-positioning systems has given rise to a plethora of location based services associated with for example retailing, fitness, public transport, tourist guidance, social media, online dating, work, and gaming. Such services, and the mobile media technology that they depend upon, ultimately contribute to the mediatization of space and culture. Research track 1 deals with the social consequences of mediatization for individuals, groups, and society, and in particular the power-relations that shape, and are shaped by, our everyday use of locative services and mobile media.
Research Track 2: Spaces of News Production and Consumption - Coordinator: Henrik Örnebring
The so-called crisis in journalism (mainly financial, but also social and cultural) is widely perceived as having negative effects on democracy, and it is increasingly being brought to public attention that the negative effects of newspaper closures and shrinking markets may well hit local/rural/semi-rural areas the hardest. Research track 2 aims to examine these negative effects based on the notion that democratic participation is not only a political phenomenon but also a cultural and spatial one. Findings from survey studies and quantitative content analysis will be combined with qualitative fieldwork conducted in multiple local communities where journalists, local community actors and citizens will be interviewed about their experiences and views of (disappearing) local and regional news coverage.
Research Track 3: Tourism and Mobility Studies - Coordinator: Mekonnen Tesfahuney
Increased mobilities shape surveillance, security, border control, and citizenship regimes. Global flows (information, tourists, capital, goods, services), coupled with expansion of digital and advanced mobile technologies, are re-configuring spaces and places, cultures and societies, polities and economies in fundamental ways. Research track 3 focuses on the In-Between Spaces of mobilities, specifically the multiple ways in which urban-rural interfaces are being reworked. Ongoing research studies the digital geographies, the in-between spaces of diaspora, migration and tourism mobilities, and their role in the transformation of places/spaces and society at large.