# Image of a City through Big Data Analytics: Colombo from the Lens of Geo-Coded Social Media Data
## 2 Background of the Literature
### Image of a City and Social Media Big Data  
Meanings that people attach and their perceptions are key contributors to the development of an image as it converts an abstract space into place [28; 29]. [PERSON] [1] argues that the legibility of the city influences the image of the city by shaping up the meaning, experience, and perceptions of the people. The advent of globalization and digital technologies has been a strong influencer on people's perceptions about the real world by shifting the meanings of time and distance and blurring the distinction between public and private [30; 31; 32]. With the prolific use of social media becoming common in the 21 st Century, it has altered the working modes and has influenced many aspects of human lives and the meanings people attach to their surroundings [33].  
Additionally, there is an increasing trend in using social media as a source of big data in urban research [34; 35]. Platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook generate considerably large amounts of geo-coded images, videos, and texts about users' daily lives, and much of this data is available in the public domain. The key attributes of social media data that make it an effective choice are that it is: (a) crowdsourced; (b) diverse in terms of data produced; (c) efficient in terms of capturing the perceptions of millions of users; (d) and accessible in the pandemic situation. As an emerging area of research, social media data has been applied in many disciplines, including: (a) marketing [36; 37]; (b) disaster/crisis management [38; 39]; (c) business analytics [40; 41]; (d) political science [42; 43]; (e) social science [44; 45; 46]; and so on. Especially, social media facilitates the inclusion of ordinary citizens in scientific decision making--i.e., citizen science [47; 48].  
Despite there being few scholars, such as [15], who questioned the relevance of [PERSON]'s theory with the advent of digital technologies, arguing that [PERSON]'s imminent fear of disorientation would have held no ground after the invention of Google Maps, number of other research studies have used online content as a tool to study the perceptions of urban environments. For instance, reference [49] mapped user behaviors and sentiments in New York using geo-coded Twitter data. Although the data sources and underlying algorithms were not disclosed, references [50; 51; 52] used the Instasights heat map, which is a web-based social media mapping tool, to monitor the impact of renewed waterfront areas in Spanish cities.  
In their study of 26 cities, reference [41] used geo-tagged Panoramio photos to understand the perception of city images. Recently, reference [17] in their study, tested the use of 'big data' and'small data' methods together in the Tri-City Region in Poland to explore the perception of city images. The study has proved the relevance of [PERSON]'s theory in the digital age by deriving parallel social media-based indicators. Nonetheless, the use of social media to understand complex and subjective urban phenomena related to urban design [48; 49] is an understudied but emerging area of research. Still, it demands more comprehensive studies to examine the image of a city through social media.