Urban Identity Through the Prism of Media Framing

Abstract

Urban identity is a complex phenomenon encompassing a wide range of city life aspects, which vary across cultures. In the media discourse, the urban issues are made prominent due to framing. The goal of the authors is to identify and systematize frames that generate meanings about the urban life, and explain them from the point of view of the journalistic strategies. The author focuses on exploring how topical urban issues are framed and presented to the reading audience. To gain a deeper understanding of the communicative schemata that determine interpretations of the city issues, a cognitive-discursive perspective is claimed central to the research. It proves adequate in demonstrating the synergies of two employed methods: discourse analysis and frame analysis. Applying a case-study approach, a sample of 658 texts is analyzed. 2577 contexts have been retrieved from The Nottingham Post between 2014 and 2017. The results show that the urban life representations rest on frame structures of different conceptual complexity. Urban identity is a rich conceptual structure (a macroframe), constituted by four frames, observable in the discourse-world of the city. Each of them has foci, which draw public attention to the social aspects of the urban living. Positive presentation of the authorities has been revealed as the leading macrostrategy aimed at supporting and approving of the initiatives taken by the local administration, which is realized through the strategies of reference, predication, and argumentation. The findings add to the framing analysis and could be beneficial for the development of urban policies.