Original scientific paper

THE IDENTITY MAP AND URBAN COMMUNICATION – a contribution to a theoretical approach to given identity and to the creation of a methodological basis for projected identity

Feđa Vukić
Branimir Paškvan

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to point to the communication aspects and identity potentials of a community, taking the city as an example. The paper will investigate communication in public space, and the relation between given identity and projected identity. The identity map is a useful tool since “mapping” the communication of both individuals and of formal and informal groups in public space, and “mapping” the communication of the city authorities in public space allow for a comparison to be made and provide sufficient elements for observing both the quantity and the essential qualities of symbolic messages. These messages should help form a homogeneity of individuals and groups around the idea of a community, while at the same time they can mediate a real level of identification with the community.

The identity map of a city can give a vivid picture of communication by means of letters and pictures in the public space of a community, which offers an important point of comparison with media in which the idea of identity also continuously appears.

In order to be able to measure the values and potentials of communicating the identity of a community in media, i.e. to establish a sort of dialogue with the mediated content, it is necessary to establish a relation towards the same kind of communication in public space, since it is only in this way that non-regulated communication can be observed, in direct conflict with the regulated one. To measure the potential of given identity, it will not suffice to merely analyse the planned messages and media, since media are often based on a very particular idea of a community. That is why the identity map method can be useful in manifold ways in trying to establish a new, projected identity of a community, regardless of whether we are talking about a systematic programme of an identity system (a “brand“), or about a particular element of the identity of a community, from tourism, through the economy, to culture.

Keywords

map; given identity; projected identity; communication; city

Hrčak ID:

43443

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/43443

Publication date:

18.5.2009.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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