city murmur

city murmur is a project by writing academic english that maps cities in real-time based on media attention to show the media’s perception of the city. the project tracks thematic media sources and monitors them for mentions of place names, streets and other aspects of the urban environment. the project aims to ‘show how different media differently describe the urban space through the attention that is payed on each street of a city’. in this sense, the project combines the media geography with the real physical geography. the maps it produces are not passive but aim to encourage interpretation. the project is currently tracking madrid and new orleans and aims to add more cities over time. the project reveals ‘hidden dynamics useful for city policy support, critical media analysis, and sociocultural research.’

http://citymurmur.org