Comparing Urban Spaces in Chicago & Milan

Project summary:

• Students collaborated with an international partner to conduct ethnographic field studies in their own cities and subsequently compared and contrasted the experiences of Chicago and Milan. There were five different sites that students studied within each city; the shopping area, the area popular for nightlife, the business district, the "Hipster" area, the transportation hub, and Chinatown. Each group considered the following issues when they are studying the specific site: visual designs and identities of place, official performances and the performances of everyday life, uses of media, rhythm analysis, and the role of gender.

Project length:

• 5 weeks

Technology tools used:

• Google products 
• WhatsApp
• Screencast-o-matic 
  
• Facebook
  
• PowerPoint/Prezi

Interaction Mode:

• Synchronous
• Asynchronous

Learning outcomes:

• Students analyzed the symbolic and material features in the city.
• Students described unique urban communication and media issues in their sites of study.
• Students compared and contrasted the site of study in Chicago with a similar site in Milan.

Reflection Component:

• Students wrote a short reflective paper that specifically focuses on what they learned through the interactions with an international partner.

Daniel Makagon

Institution: DePaul University
Discipline: Communication
Course name: Urban Communication.

Matteo Tarantino

Institution: Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Discipline: Communication
Course name: Media & Social Networks.