Urban Imaginary: City Image and Media Space

The article examines the role of imagination in creating an individual and collective city image. Noting the essential value of information and digital technologies in the modern world, the author draws attention on how the city image can be represented in the media space, and reveals possible effects of the media image on the real city and urban practices. The study focuses on solving the problem of the fragmented nature of the direct city perception, aimed at certain elements of the urban environment. The author shows that the imagination allows forming an image of the city as a whole, to defragment the complex of individual perceptions and supplement them with mental, symbolic and emotional aspects. The aim of the research is to argue that by means of the Urban Imaginary we can comprehend the city as an existentially important and culturally heterogeneous space of the human lifeworld. One of the key tools for generating the Urban Imaginary and creating the city image is the media space. As a result of the study, the author substantiates the constitutive role of imagination in the process of forming the city image, as well as identifies the types of city representation in the media based on the frequency of mentions of the city and the nature of these mentions. The article demonstrates that the image of the city has a significant impact on city residents and visitors, determining the tourist, migration and economic flows.