What is European Capitals

Within the theoretical framework of social representations this chapter features the web-based multi-faced sources of information about three European capitals: London, Madrid, and Warsaw. In line with the “modelling approach to social representations”, the research verifies a set of three hypotheses concerning each considered web-based media source (a: institutional municipal websites; b: social networks; c: Google Earth) and its relationship with more traditional forms of communication. The communicative capacity of the municipal websites and the manner of creating virtual itineraries by Google Earth are related to the overall self-rated importance of sources of information about cities; while exchanges about the same target cities through social networks reflect the interactive nature of interpersonal communication. The results from web-based media studies will be also compared with those based on the field study, involving 420 first-time visitors from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, UK, and USA, contacted before and after their first-time visit.