Spatial Production from a Media Perspective: How Social Platforms Constructs "Check-in Culture"

In the context of digital media, the "reproduction" logic of social platforms on social space has derived "check-in culture". This paper focuses on analyzing the generation logic of "check-in culture" from the perspective of mediatization theory, and analyzes the impact of "check-in culture" on user communication practice, social capital, and cultural capital commodification from three dimensions of interaction. The study shows that in the spatial domain, online check-ins "reproduce" concrete space, interweaving reality and virtuality, but also making urban landscapes converge; in the temporal domain, the "presence" logic of the media strengthens the "synchronous presence" of online check-ins. Under the influence of the platform storage and push mechanism, the "past tense" of check-ins can be continuously circulated, becoming the eternal presence of "moments", making personal memory a cultural product controlled by algorithms; in the data domain, check-in behavior is digitized by the platform and incorporated into the traffic distribution system. The user's communication practice is subject to the allocation of visible resources. High-influence users and brands have the advantage of information dissemination, while the expression space of ordinary users is limited.