ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to integrate a phenomenological approach to the understanding of place and the understanding of place that people gain when using locative media in a traditional media studies research project. The specific example of locative media that was investigated using a phenomenological approach was the Location-based Social Network Foursquare. Locative media is therefore concerned with location and requires information about location. Locative media, therefore, has a dual articulation: locative media can provide information about locations anywhere in the world and can provide context- and locale-specific information about the place the device is being used in too. In the framework used to assess the use of Foursquare then, the orientation of the person to that location and the locative media being used in that location are crucial to how a phenomenal, lived-in place is differentiated from pure physical space.
