Global cities as mediated spaces : the role of media in forming contradictory places

What does it mean that the media, both in content and form, divides citizens of a global city, even as it brings them together? What does it mean that cities are intensely local places but the same media that represents citizens to each other also connects them globally? These two questions weave through this chapter, which explores how global and local forces coalesce in mediated urban spaces. I suggest that the so-called “global cities”, New York, Paris, London and Tokyo, as defined by Saskia Sassen, need to be de-centred from contemporary theorizing. This chapter begins to set out an alternative.