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<p>This article presents an action-research study investigating a spatially sensitive innovation process of place-based experiences in a rural area of Sweden. Lately, there have been a growing number of initiatives focused on developing location-aware mobile media – geomedia technologies – to offer place-based digital experiences within tourism. Drawing on contemporary critical studies on geomedia technologies, we stress the importance of reflecting upon the implications of place-based technologies to minimise both the negative impacts on a place and the neglect of local perspectives. We conducted action-research interventions to unpack the complexity of developing place-based mediated experiences. The study makes an illustrative case of how interventions lead to more nuanced development processes of geomedia technologies while simultaneously fostering creativity. We argue that as action research allows researchers to intervene in media innovations, it identifies models for more nuanced place-based development processes, including local spatial and sociocultural perspectives.</p>
</abstract>

This article presents an action-research study investigating a spatially sensitive innovation process of place-based experiences in a rural area of Sweden. Lately, there have been a growing number of initiatives focused on developing location-aware mobile media – geomedia technologies – to offer place-based digital experiences within tourism. Drawing on contemporary critical studies on geomedia technologies, we stress the importance of reflecting upon the implications of place-based technologies to minimise both the negative impacts on a place and the neglect of local perspectives. We conducted action-research interventions to unpack the complexity of developing place-based mediated experiences. The study makes an illustrative case of how interventions lead to more nuanced development processes of geomedia technologies while simultaneously fostering creativity. We argue that as action research allows researchers to intervene in media innovations, it identifies models for more nuanced place-based development processes, including local spatial and sociocultural perspectives.

Digital media innovations through participatory action research: Interventions for digital place-based experiences

Department of geography, media and communication

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This article presents an action-research study investigating a spatially sensitive innovation process of place-based experiences in a rural area of Sweden....

Method	Data collected	Sampling and material
Document study	Local history, culture, the conditioning landscape, and natural resources.	Written local material, such as books and reports.Archives at local heritage organisations.Visual material, such as old photographs.Websites describing the local history.
Qualitative study of media presence	Digital representation of the place.	Social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google Maps, and Twitter.Hashtag search related to each place.
Qualitative interviews	On-site, face-to-face interviews with visitors at each place.	38 interviews, 17 of which were with Swedish citizens and 21 with visitors from other European countries. The interviews were 20–50 minutes.
Workshops	Creative collaborative work with different groups.	Observations, written notes, photographs, and video documentation. Each workshop lasted around 4 hours and was conducted locally on site. 8 workshops were conducted and 96 people participated. Participants were recruited using a snowball method among entrepreneurs and the research team.
Evaluation questionnaires	Qualitative evaluation questionnaires for participants in workshops.	Evaluation questionnaires distributed after each workshop; 42 answers.
Focus-group discussion	Qualitative evaluation with entrepreneurs and stakeholders.	Three focus-group discussions (4, 3, 4 participants) after the process.

Digital media innovations through participatory action research: Interventions for digital place-based experiences

Published Online: Jun 29, 2022

Page range: 134 - 151

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2022-0009

Keywords
action research, media innovation, geomedia technologies, destination development, digital experiences

© 2022 Linda Ryan Bengtsson et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Data sources and collected data

Digital media innovations through participatory action research: Interventions for digital place-based experiences

Published Online: Jun 29, 2022

Page range: 134 - 151

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2022-0009

Keywordsaction research, media innovation, geomedia technologies, destination development, digital experiences

© 2022 Linda Ryan Bengtsson et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Data sources and collected data

Keywords
action research, media innovation, geomedia technologies, destination development, digital experiences