Mediated communication in relation to everyday human mobility: a systematic literature review

The increased academic interest in mediated communication in relation to geographical issues such as (a sense of) space, place or human mobility amassed to a substantial yet scattered body of knowledge. In order to progress the understanding of this relation in all its complexity and multitude, it is necessary to both map and examine the literature critically. This paper addresses this necessity, from a communication and media studies perspective, by interrogating how mediated communication is studied in relation to everyday human mobility. Earlier work has been enlightening in assembling literature on the nexus of geography and mediated communication or by outlining its mutual concerns. This paper, although narrower in scope, aligns with this earlier work as it offers a synthesized overview of the current research on the aforementioned topic as well as a solid base that can direct future research. Specifically, a two stage systematic review is executed. Firstly, literature is mapped according to meta-variables and analytical variables. The former includes, among others, year of publication and field of research while the latter includes research topic, method, and paradigm. Secondly, key articles are problematized in terms of their implicit and or explicit ontological and epistemological assumptions, their theorizations and conceptualizations as well as the applied methods. To conclude, this paper speculates how this specific topic, along with the larger field of communication geography, can benefit from a media-as-practice approach