– Our research makes a valuable contribution to the students’ work in designing places for tourism, where we demonstrate the importance of working with place-based digital development in harmony with places and people, says Lotta Braunerhielm, docent in human geography at Karlstad University.
Geomedia research looks at the relationship between places and media and how they affect each other.
The tourism industry has been characterised by digitalisation for quite a few years. At the same time, the challenge has been that development has primarily been technology-driven.
Mette Mortensen is a professor of media studies at the University of Copenhagen with a doctorate in art and literature and an interdisciplinary background with a Master’s in literary history.
The research project “Sámi ‘Trail of Tears’ Walking Trail” has now been completed. Richard Ek, professor of human geography and project leader, talks about the importance of the control being with the indigenous population and that the culture surrounding Sápmi is extremely important in keeping the stories surrounding the forced displacement of the Sámi alive.
– Our findings have confirmed what we’ve known all along, Richard Ek explains.
People who own or have access to a holiday home are called “the invisible population” because they can be difficult to reach in the event of a crisis. Geomedia researchers at Karlstad University emphasise the importance of increasing the knowledge regarding how crisis communication from authorities needs to reach temporary populations.
Holiday homes are a significant part of Swedish tourism.
Xin Liu, senior lecturer in gender studies at Karlstad University, receives funding for her research from Geomedia to write the book ”Making Air Smart: The Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Atmospheric Data”.
Xin Liu, in what way is this project connected to Geomedia?
- It examines the production, imaginaries, experiences, and implications of atmospheric data, which includes environmental data such as air quality index, remote sensing data of forest, and radar scan of atmosp
It's time to look back on 2023 – the second year for the Center for Geomedia Studies. First and foremost, I want to thank you for all the valuable contributions and efforts that collectively build our shared research environment!
The examples below, taken from our news feed, provide a glimpse of what we were up to during 2023. But much more also took place.
New externally funded projects started – others continued. A new Geomedia Phd, Henrik Bergius, joined us.
- Propaganda is what media and communication research has focused on in Russia – the discourse that I’m looking at was fairly unexplored before the start of the war, says Svetlana Chuikina.
In her doctoral thesis, “(Re)constructing Russian anti-war movements.
The Mediatization of Space through navigational interfaces, or: the digital map as a symptom of (almost) everything that has happened with media.
After a phase of “spatial forgetfulness,” media and communication studies have revisited the intersection of media, space, and place, challenging earlier views of media inherently transcending geographical constrains leading to spatial annihilation and the disappearance of distance.
Briefly tell us about your background
- Academically socialized in media studies, last year I became a professor of design theory at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in the city of Halle, Germany. Before that, I worked as a scientific coordinator of the interdisciplinary research school "Locating Media" at University of Siegen that had a strong focus on researching location- and situation-specific media processes by means of location- and situation-specific methods.
Richard Ek, professor in human geography at Karlstad University, tell us about the Indigeneity and Visual Sovereignty conference held in Cape Town 27–28 April 2023
- The conference theme was “visual sovereignty”, which includes ways for indigenous communities around the world to have ownership and control of for instance materials and photo archives that depict their history, culture, language, and identity.
Setting the Scene: Academic interventions in the media and tourism industries with our guest professor Stijn Reijnders at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
Title
Setting the Scene: Academic interventions in the media and tourism industries
Abstract
This presentation focuses on media tourism: the phenomenon of people travelling to places associated with films, TV series or other forms of popular culture.
Henrik, you recently began your doctoral studies in Geomedia at Karlstad University. Tell us about your background.
- I have a Master’s in cultural studies from the University of Gothenburg and an interdisciplinary background in humanities with a great interest in culture and social policy issues. I’m interested in the way geomedia affects society and culture, and the spatial aspects of media.
Tell us about your research project
- The idea is to focus on digital exclusion in public transport.
It is not only beautiful and vast landscapes as seen in "The Lord of the Rings" and medieval castles in "Game of Thrones" that attract screen tourists.
During 2022, our new Geomedia research centre got off to a flying start. One way of summarizing our achievements, is to revisit what was written about Geomedia during the year. The below examples represent the interdisciplinary scope and quality of our research.
Georgia Aitaki has analysed financial crises, striving for international attention and broken hearts in countries far from home.
With her doctoral thesis ”The Private life of a nation in crisis - A study on the politics in/of Greek television fiction”, Georgia Aitaki, senior lecturer in Media and Communication Studies at Karlstad University, examined the Greek TV industry and the mechanisms involving its producers, screenwriters and filmmakers.
