Platform-mediated territorial stigmatization and destigmatization: Unpacking Reddit discussions on moving to “the other” London

Abstract

This paper interrogates the role of digital platforms in advancing territorial stigma. Drawing from research that has discerned the channels with which territorial stigma has been produced and mediated through — commonly referred to as ‘modes’ — I argue digital platforms are a mode in their own right. Digital platforms are on par with, and may have already surpassed, pre-platform media modes (e.g., newspapers, television) in terms of their use for forming preconceptions of cities in lieu of lived experience. Accordingly, this study investigates discussions on the social networking platform Reddit, about moving to the mid-sized city of London, Ontario in Canada. I use a hybrid thematic analysis to identify (de)stigmatizing content within a topic-based forum (a subreddit). The results show that the platform mediated its users’ reproduction of territorial stigmas stemming from pre-platform modes, rather than having generated entirely novel stigmas. Moreover, many users enacted or reworked established territorial destigmatization strategies to contest, counter, or cope with London’s territorial stigma. This paper contributes to territorial stigma research by examining a lesser-known mid-sized city, which in turn expands the current understanding of stigmatization in Canada hitherto limited to its materialization in large cities. By demonstrating Reddit’s modal potentiality, the paper provides the necessary empirical basis for future studies interested in examining other digital platforms through the theoretical framework of territorial stigma. Furthermore, it encourages future conceptualizations of the media mode of territorial stigma production to include digital platforms alongside traditional and mass media.