On June 30, 2026, the School of Media and Communication (SMC) at Shenzhen University hosted an academic lecture titled “Urban Media Studies: Current Paradigms and Emergent Approaches.” The lecture was delivered by Professor Yomi Braester of the University of Washington, Seattle, and moderated by Professor Jiang Chang of SMC. More than 60 faculty members and students attended the event.
Professor Chang extended a warm welcome to Professor Braester and briefly introduced his academic background and contributions to the field. Yomi Braester is Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Cinemas. He previously served as President of the Association for Chinese and Comparative Literature and has received honors including the Joseph Levenson Book Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His major publications include Witness Against History: Literature, Film, and Public Discourse in Twentieth-Century China (2003) and Painting the City Red: Chinese Cinema and the Urban Contract (2010). His current research focuses on Chinese cinephilia, digital media, and urban space.
Professor Braester opened the lecture with an image of Shenzhen at night, inviting participants to identify the forms of media embedded in the urban landscape. From coordinated building light shows to drones operating as part of the city’s technological infrastructure, these examples illustrated how media increasingly shape the ways cities are represented and understood. He described urban media studies as an emerging interdisciplinary field that brings together urban studies, geography, anthropology, architecture and planning, film and media studies, art history, and science and technology studies. Drawing on examples from media, art, and everyday urban life, he emphasized that the field is concerned not simply with images, screens, or technological devices, but with how media shape the ways people perceive, understand, and experience urban environments.
Turning to historical and contemporary cases, including the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, Braester further explored the interplay between media, architecture, and the urban environment. He showed how buildings, screens, and public spaces can function together as systems of communication, offering new ways to understand the relationship between media technologies and city life.
The lecture concluded with a Q&A session moderated by Assistant Professor Songyin Liu of SMC. Participants discussed topics ranging from the growing phenomenon of internet-famous cities in China to theme parks and the scale of urban media. The discussion highlighted the broad interdisciplinary potential of urban media studies and offered fresh perspectives on media practices in contemporary cities.
