Ergin, Fatma Ecem; (2023) City-framed: the trustworthiness of digital media and the role of the built environment in informing the public. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Preview

Text Ergin_10167176_Thesis_Redacted_sig_removed.pdf Download (126MB) | Preview

Abstract

With the rise-of the era of post-truth politics, established definitions of urban activism need to be revisited. Covering different territories and media, this dissertation proposes new ways of thinking about architecture and its digital representation as a medium for political engagement. It is my argument that built environment as an information space can be deployed to reduce the ‘uncertainty’ of a message encountered online and can therefore be used for legitimization by increasing image’s credibility. Starting with Times Square in New York, the context of the research expands to Asia and investigates how actors on the global political stage such as China, India, and Pakistan have been using the built environment of another global power, the USA, to validate their competing political claims about each other. While employing iconic urban backgrounds for legitimizing political messages is far from new, campaigns using another country’s public places and monuments to gain repute at home represents a new territory for geopolitical discourses to be articulated and contested. The research reflects on the possible implications of these novel forms of political messaging for a ’trustworthy’ national politics in an age of globalization.

Download activity - last month

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as CSVJSONXML

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Archive Staff Only

View Item