UCF announces this year's awards recipients

New book series from Hampton Press

Cities are inherently places of communication and meeting spaces for interaction and/or observation. The nature of any communication venue is altered by social and technological circumstances, and the urban environment is altered, in turn, by changes in communication patterns. We need to understand relationships among these significant forces--communication, technology, and the urban, suburban, rural environment--as they shape each other. Communication systems and urban social systems can be examined at multiple levels as scholars and planners examine interaction in public spaces, neighborhood communication patterns, and urban systems of transportation.

While virtual communities have captured the imagination of some, relationships in traditional physical environments remain neglected. The planning of physical environments results in intended and unintended, functional and dysfunctional social consequences. Chief among these influences has been transportation. So too does the introduction of communication technologies and the creation of digital environments.

Each innovation modifies alters intra and interpersonal relationships. The introduction of communication technology has and is reshaping our traditional attitudes toward place and toward each other. The focus of this series is upon social relationships in a swiftly changing communication environment. Media coverage of urban issues, conflict resolution and contested urban space, visual communication, rhetorical dimensions of urban life, film and the city, journalism, the ethnic and community press, local media and public policy, urban development and communication are just some areas of relevance.

This book series will provide a forum to explore and discuss the challenges created by the intersection of communication and urban life focusing on what communication scholarship has to offer for enhanced understanding of cities and for the development of a public policy which takes into account communication needs and practices.

Contact Gary Gumpert at: listra@optonline.net