Place-based Communication Research Articles

Deconstructing the traditional classroom through intersections of critical place-based communication

Deconstructing the traditional classroom through intersections of critical place-based communication

Place-based Climate Change Communication and Engagement in Canada’s Provincial North: Lessons Learned from Climate Champions

ABSTRACT This paper explores how climate change communication is understood and enacted in Canada’s Provincial North (CPN), with a focus on the role that local climate champions play in regions characterized by rurality, remoteness, and a high degree of reliance on natural resource industries. Drawing from 24 in-depth interviews with individuals increasing local attention to climate in Northern British Columbia and Ontario, this research identifies communication challenges and opportunities arising in these contexts. Existing literature inadequately addresses the challenges of advancing climate change initiatives in rural and remote communities. Confirming and extending existing research on place-based communication, CPN climate champions underscored that messages must be place-based, community-informed, reflect local realities, and address the role of industry in regional economies. This paper offers an important set of insights that is relevant to climate change communication in other rural and remote settings in high-income countries.

Augmented criminality: How people process in situ augmented reality crime information in relation to space/place

Communication about crime and the places it occurs has been an important area of study for criminology, sociology, public policy, and media scholars. Where incidents used to be communicated through word of mouth, physical evidence, and news outlets, recent advances in crime tracking, mapping, and mobile media have dramatically changed how individuals are informed about crime. Many organizations have adopted mobile text alerts, and recent advances in augmented reality (AR) technologies have made it possible to overlay visuals about crime on top of users’ physical surroundings. How people make sense of this visual, individualized, and location-specific crime information, however, is largely unknown and complicated by the fact that mobile technologies are challenging to study in situ, as people move through and experience urban place. Within the AR literature, while existing research has started to look at the ways that AR can affect people’s experience of place, the precise ways that people perceive and integrate AR displays into their understanding of place are still largely unexplored. This empirical study reports findings from a project utilizing AR as an urban probe, where we took participants ( N = 57) around to places in a large metropolitan area in the United States and showed them visual AR crime information overlaid on the physical place where they were moving through. After seeing these urban probes, participants were asked what they noticed, remembered, and thought occurred in that place when shown AR crime information. The analysis draws on Lefebvre’s (1991) spatial triad to explain how people read places through the lens of AR, and also how they extrapolate, speculate, and make associations from AR information. Based on these findings, this study discusses the implications for mobile media scholars and their understanding of visual place-based communication, as well as for designers and policymakers considering the use of AR to communicate crime information.

Understanding public displays as a medium for place-based communication: implications from current practices with non-digital displays

This work has been supported by national funds through FCT, Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019.

The Importance of Place in Communicating Climate Change to Different Facets of the American Public

Abstract While the need for action on climate change is urgent, individual-level behaviors to mitigate or adapt to the problem have not tracked with the increasing urgency for action. Place-based communication of climate change may catalyze action by making climate change more personally relevant. However, there is no one general public, so communication efforts can unintentionally polarize beliefs. This study aims to fill the gap in knowledge about how and why different audiences respond to place-based climate change communication, which could aid climate change communication efforts and climate scientists. Results from an experimental survey of 655 Californians and follow-up interviews indicate that prior climate change beliefs influence the effectiveness of place-based climate change communication. In particular, those who were already “concerned” about climate change, as classified by the Six Americas, were the only group to show a significant response to an intervention. This study also finds no difference in willingness to adapt to climate change between local and global framings. However, those exposed to a local framing were more likely to take personal-scale adaptation actions, while those exposed to a global framing were more likely to take policy-scale adaptation actions. These results, and the theories of place attachment and psychological distance, suggest that place-based communication may only be applicable for certain audiences (e.g., the concerned) and when the scale of the intervention matches the scale of action.

Bridging mechanisms in multiethnic communities: Place-based communication, neighborhood belonging, and intergroup relations

ABSTRACTUsing communication infrastructure theory (CIT), this study examines how place-based communication, including neighborhood interpersonal discussion, geo-ethnic media, and local organizations, may have the potential to promote multiethnic intergroup relations through forging a sense of neighborhood belonging. Based on survey data consisting of 405 diverse community members, this study employs structural equation modeling to test the relationships among residents’ connection to place-based communication, their level of neighborhood belonging, out-group contact frequency, and perceived interaction quality across six interethnic dyads. Findings suggest that place-based communication does impact multiethnic intergroup interaction, but the direction and magnitude of such effects diverge along ethnic lines.

Place-Based Dialogics: Adaptive Cultural and Interpersonal Approaches to Environmental Conservation

This study examines conservation campaigns and how they employ place-based interpersonal communication tactics to better engage local communities in rural locations in Indonesia, Philippines, and Colombia. In collaboration with the non-governmental organization Rare, the authors explore how social marketing campaigns coupled with interpersonal communication can influence communities that are often considered the most marginalized and affected by environmental problems. Field research was conducted in Indonesia since 2008 and Colombia since 2014. Ethnography through participant observation and interviews were primary methods for data collection as well as a thorough analysis of organizational documents, such as websites, blogs, reports, and other written work. Using theories of dialogue and place-based studies of interpersonal communication, three key campaign strategies emerged from our research. First, cooperative engagement through semi-formalized information sharing is an important component of building a campaign in rural areas, which might include key stakeholder meetings, relationship building with local governmental, religious, and community leaders, and training sessions with local farmers or fishers. A second approach is based on critical listening and understanding through word of mouth involvement, such as community activities and improved understanding of the challenges that local people face in their communities. Finally, a third approach relates to the recognition of difference through engaging local culture. Campaign managers have used religious leaders, local languages, traditional customs and activities, and other place-based approaches to create inclusive conservation campaigns. These strategies demonstrate that conservation campaigns require intense interpersonal dialogue, long-term commitment, and place-based understanding.

Mobile Design as Neighborhood Acupuncture: Activating the Storytelling Networks of South Los Angeles

A delicate touch is required to empower neighborhoods using civic media. Funding is persistently scarce. Especially in marginalized neighborhoods, blunt designs can be counterproductive and even entrench complex problems. New metaphors may be needed to guide design and empower local neighborhoods. Urban acupuncture is used as the basis for this study, emphasizing a light-touch strategy that has shown success in Brazil with urban transit, and more recently in Europe with urban design. We specifically propose “neighborhood acupuncture” to address the local level, tapping the sociology of place-based communication. To investigate the implications for systematic design, a case study is probed in South Los Angeles using mobile media for community mapping. Using qualitative methods, three tactics were investigated for the potential to “poke” the network into action, including one to bridge diverse storytelling networks. Each tactic ultimately seeks to build the capacity for collective action around neighborhood issues. Acupuncture is broadly argued to sustain two design shifts: first to help approach neighborhoods as ecosystems, and second, to design for circulation rather than any single technology platform.

A Response to Mandelker'sFree Speech law for On Premise Signs

In the late 1990s, a heated discussion about the regulation of outdoor advertising in the Journal of the American Planning Association attracted a great deal of interest in the planning community. In an article entitled “Beauty as Well as Bread,“ the president of Scenic America launched an attack on the sign industry. The authors wrote, “Nothing can damage community appearance or destroy a sense of place faster than uncontrolled signs and billboards. “ The Signage Foundation for Communication Excellence (SFCE ) responded to the article in the journal's winter 1998 issue. SFCE sought to reframe the discussion by posing the question: “How can we integrate place based communication and graphics into a rational, reasonable, and attractive land use plan? “

Changing the Conversation about Climate Change: A Theoretical Framework for Place-Based Climate Change Engagement

In this paper we present and test a theoretical framework for place-based climate change engagement. The framework is based on principles from place attachment theory, place-based education, free-choice learning, and norm activation theory. The framework, which we empirically validate here, demonstrates the power of engaging citizens in action-based learning at physical, material places, which are also symbolic sites for inspiring political action and learning about climate change impacts. Research has shown that climate change will resonate with diverse audiences when: (1) it is situated in cultural values and beliefs, (2) it is meaningful to that audience, and (3) it empowers specific action. We use data collected at 16 national parks and wildlife refuges in the USA; all of which are experiencing the impacts of climate change and struggling to develop climate change communication and outreach activities for their visitors and local communities. Thus, this framework and the empirical validation presented are the result of triangulating quantitative survey data (n = 4,181) and qualitative interviews (n = 359) to argue for the unparalleled potential for America's parks and refuges to inspire civic engagement in climate change through place-based communication.

Cultural Discourses of Dwelling: Investigating Environmental Communication as a Place-based Practice

In this essay, we contribute a response to intellectual and practical problems by presenting a perspective on environmental communication that is reflexively grounded in place. The perspective is designed to explore human relations with nature, while embracing cultural and linguistic variability. Our goals are to introduce a way to think through communication to places, and further to link that understanding to issues of engaged environmental action, to deeply seated notions of identity, and to the affective dimension of belonging that place-based communication often brings with it. Our way of doing this is to theorize and study cultural discourses of dwelling, which we explicate theoretically, then further illustrate by analyzing the discourse of adult-onset hunters. Our discussion concludes by exploring not only environmental speaking, but listening environmentally.

Connecting with different audiences: The anatomy of communication is essential

In the twenty-first century, communication has become truly global. Advances in technology have opened up a host of ways in which we are able to communicate to retrieve or pass on information and knowledge. In many cases we have moved from a place-based communication approach to one of increasing mobility. With this shift in approach, it is apparent that effective communication skills are perhaps even more important so that we can connect appropriately with diverse audiences. Despite this, relatively little attention has been paid to training our students in different modes of communication and therefore we may not be fully preparing our students to play their part in the global community. Given anatomy's place within many health-care curricula, an ideal avenue is available for anatomists to take the lead in providing communications skills training for students. There are a variety of approaches, some of which are outlined in this article, which can be used to create appropriate opportunities for developing different communication skills and these can be woven into existing practices to ensure courses do not become overburdened. A sustained approach to communication skills training will help equip our students to communicate easily with the many aspects of modern society.