The Mediated City Between Research Fields: An Invitation to Urban Media Studies

In this article, that works as an introduction to a Special Section on Urban Media Studies, we argue for a wider recognition of an emerging and vibrant scholarly space for research that permeates the borders of both media/ communication studies and urban studies. Our main motivation and aim is to shed light on the mutually constitutive entanglement of media, in all their multiplicity, and urban phenomena. The article first lays out some of the key elements that help define, though do not exhaust, the field of urban media studies. Moreover, we identify some important developments in both media studies and urban studies that have paved the way to the endeavor, such as non-media-centric approaches to media and relational/processual takes on urban space. We bring together some familiar and emerging models in the formation of urban media studies, even if we envisage this emerging scholarly space as open to further refinements, additions, and modulations, as necessitated by individual research interests and contexts.