The 2013 UCF-IAMCR Grant was awarded to Geoff Ostrove a PhD candidate in the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism & Communication. Having recently received a Master of Community & Regional Planning, Geoff’s research primarily focuses on the political economy of communication and how that process influences our society’s perception of certain resources. He currently holds a fellowship on Natural Resources Policy awarded by the Oregon Sea Grant, and he is working with the Oregon Office of Emergency Management on a project to help mitigate the impacts of the large amount of marine debris that is now present in the Pacific Ocean as a result of the 2011 Japan tsunami.
He won the grant with a project which explores the notion of allowing communication corporations to create their own communities and what that means to our society in terms of politics, economics, and power structure. Four cities where major communication corporations have played an integral role in the planning or redesign of the community will be studied: Celebration, Florida (USA); Dubuque, Iowa (USA); Songdo, South Korea; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Funded by the Urban Communication Foundation, this grant supports communication and media research that advances our understanding of the growing complexity of the urban environment. It is predicated on the assumption that communication scholars have a valuable contribution to make to an understanding of the urban landscape. A 5-person committee consisting of three IAMCR members and two Urban Communication Foundation representatives judged the submitted proposals. IAMCR representatives in the committee are Aimée Vega Montiel, Cees Hamelink and Nico Carpentier. Urban Communication Foundation representatives are Gary Gumpert and Susan Drucker.