Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

3-2018

Abstract

This research investigated people’s communication of urban space as reflected in Twitter messages (tweets) during the 2012 Super Bowl. The authors archived over 600,000 tweets related to the Super Bowl from January 23 through early February 6. The authors identified 78 Indianapolis-area places or routes named in the tweets. Based on occurrence of these terms, the authors retained 9,103 city-specific messages for analysis. The frequency of such tweets changed over the two-week period and peaked two days before game day. Instances of all of Lynch’s (1960) The Image of the City elements (node, district, landmark, path, and edge) were found in the tweets. While node-referencing terms were most common among the 78 spatial identifiers, district and landmark references were most common in the tweet sample. Edge references were almost non-existent and only occurred as named waterways. This research has implications for city-oriented social media monitoring efforts for future special events.

Keywords

Urban space, Twitter, communication, Super Bowl, image of the city

Discipline

Geography | Human Geography | Social Media

Research Areas

Integrative Research Areas

Publication

Journal of Urban Technology

Volume

25

Issue

3

First Page

65

Last Page

82

ISSN

1063-0732

Identifier

10.1080/10630732.2017.1348881

Publisher

Taylor and Francis Group

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2017.1348881

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