Urban Identity Through the Prism of Media Framing

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Introduction

Urbanization, urban environment and social problems of big cities have been given scholarly attention in cultural studies [1; 2], history [3], sociology [4], public health studies [5], economics [6], urban management [7], to name some relatively recent publications. The surge of the Internet communication [8] and mediatization [9] have brought about noticeable changes in the speed and the quality of information about the urban life. Media framing in discourse is playing a crucial role in telegraphing meanings and ideas about big cities and the urban policy. However, the urban issues examined within the methodology combining Discourse analysis [10; 11] and Frame analysis [12] are so far scarce [13; 14], though, both have proved powerful theoretical tools of the modern research. The integration of their heuristics to delve into the urban problems is a sound research perspective for several reasons.

Firstly, frames are communicable, they systematize information by providing special patterns or structures, which can vary in their complexity [15]. Secondly, framing organizes information and invites people to think about the urban phenomena in a certain way. Thirdly, framing of the urban identity in the media results in evoking mental representations that determine the readers’ opinions about the city policy. Fourthly, media framing contributes to generating in discourse a vivid urban ‘panorama’ that can be modelled on the basis of media texts. Finally, the process of framing makes salient those social problems, which need to be tackled by the authorities. In this paper, the objective of the authors is to explore media frames constituting meaningful fragments of the discourse-world of the city in the local press and explain what major frame structures are enacted to represent the urban identity issues.

Theoretical background

Urban identity is a multifarious issue, which encompasses a lot of properties of big cities and the feeling of belonging to the places on the part of the city dwellers. To explore this complex social phenomenon we draw on the tenets that come from Discourse studies [16–18], Text world theory [19–21], World-Modelling theory [22. P. 267–271], Framing theory [23–27]. The system of views that determine our approach to the study of the urban identity framing is based on a reasonable synthesis of the following ideas.

According to Van Dijk, the socio-cognitive approach to discourse “relates discourse structures to social structures via a complex sociocognitive interface” [17. P. 3]. In the present paper, the analysis goes beyond the structural properties of the texts and takes heed of the contextual features that impose on the ‘picture’ of the city in the media discourse. The link between discourse studies and cognition has been much discussed in the works by Van Dijk and Wodak [17; 18. P. 180]. We also think that discourse and society can be ‘bridged’ in cognitive terms. Sharing this idea, the authors will demonstrate that mental representations, evoked in the media discourse, guide the readers’ understandings of the urban identity issues.

The notion of a mental representation is central to the research. Representational structure is a generic term we use to denote a mental construct, textualized in the discourse, relating to the urban life presentation in the media communication [22. P. 268]. Media messages about the urban issues are understood through the construction of mental representations, which are induced in the media discourse and dependent on “the linguistic cues provided by the text”, and “vitally grounded in the context of the discourse” [19. P. 1].

With this in mind, we draw on the worlds-based approach [19–21; 28. P. 298] and introduce the notion of the discourse-world of the city (hereafter — DW of the city) as a representational structure, textualized in an aggregate of thematically united texts related to the processes and the results of the city coverage in the media. Ontologically, DWs are constructs of our mind, they are “cognitive entities simulating a reality” [28. P. 298].

DW of the city is characterized in terms of its semantic macrostructure, which is a conceptual global meaning structure revealed and modelled on the basis of media messages. According to Van Dijk, the macrostructure highlights “what is the major, more relevant, more general information out of complex information as represented at the more concrete microlevel” [29. P. 13].

Fundamentally, DWs are rich mental constructs, socially and culturally situated, which contribute to understanding of the social processes. The macrostructure of a DW is constituted by macroframes. Their function is to direct the audience’s attention to the themes within which the urban issues are discussed. Macroframes comprise a hierarchy of cognitive elements such as frames, subframes, and slots. The term macroframe is employed by the authors to denote an overarching (allencompassing) frame that integrates diverse frames, which explain particular aspects of the urban identity.

Entman’s understanding of framing is taken as a methodological springboard:“To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation” [23. P. 52]. In other words, frames are organizing principles activated by journalists to meaningfully construct the urban reality in the media discourse. Frames can be identified through lexical choices, selection of sources, metaphors, catchphrases, visual images, graphics, stereotypes [30].

Analyzing the urban identity in the media discourse, we particularly focus on the news frames, or media packages that elicit knowledge about the city and play a crucial role in presenting social issues. They set the parameters, in which the urban issues are discussed. Media frames are considered ‘schemata of interpretation’ that organize representations of the city life in the media [31] and link journalistic approaches of shaping the news to structures of meaning and, thus, stimulate the public to adopt the introduced frames and to view the urban reality from the perspective the journalists intend [26. P. 485; 32. P. 94; 33; 34].

In what follows, we will specify the role of frames in understanding the urban identity issues. We’ll try to reveal which communicative schemata help readers conceptualize information about the city life. It will be demonstrated that different foci of frames draw public attention to fragments of the collective urban experience that are made public.

Data and Methodology

Urban identity issues are fundamentally interdisciplinary by nature, thus, we resort to a number of co-existing methods to better understand this complex phenomenon. Within the framework of a broad cognitive-discursive approach, we take into account mental, communicative and linguistic factors, which determine the urban life representations in the media. To particularize these, the authors analyze media frames reconstructed from the British newspaper The Nottingham Post^[1]. The paper positions as a trusted local news brand, a politically independent quality paper.

In the 2011 census, the Nottingham Urban Area was the eighth largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The choice of Nottinghamshire as the object of the media coverage is not arbitrary as for almost twenty years the British county and the Russian city of Chelyabinsk (from which the authors come from) were twinned^[2]. Though in 2022, officials at Nottingham announced it has severed all ties with its twin cities in Russia, the authors hope that the coalition of cities will be a major step forward in diplomacy and twinning will be restored.

Applying a case-study approach, a sample of 658 texts was collected and analyzed with the aim to determine how a major local news outlet frames the problems of the urban identity. 2577 contexts have been retrieved from The Post. The majority of the data collection reflect the media coverage of the county between 2014 and 2017. The following methods have been employed to reveal the frames functioning in the local media discourse. Firstly, the corpus-assisted analysis allowed the authors to enlist the key words and phrases and reveal frames serving the cognitive ‘building blocks’ in the DW of the city. The identification of relevant contexts started by searching for keywords, such as ‘Nottingham’, ‘Notts’. In line with the conceptual framework, the media texts were searched for frames that explain identity issues: specifically frames that relate to the urban area daily activities with special focus on cultural and sports events and the work of the city council administration. In a second step, the contextual analysis, combining features of a formal procedure with the cultural and historical aspects, helped to assess the media representations transmitted to the audience and their role in constructing the discourse-world. Thirdly, the discourse analysis enabled the authors to evaluate the media representations of the urban issues relating to the social and cultural context and identify the overarching frame (macroframe) within the DW of the city. Fourthly, frame analysis made it possible to focus on major ‘interpretive schemata’, by which journalists diagnose a problem, evaluate it, and give recommendations on possible solutions. The qualitative analysis of the frames involved in the urban world-modeling was carried out. The use of these methods has proved adequate to get a deeper understanding of the discursive mechanisms of ‘portraying’ the city life, and revealing meaningful aspects of the urban identity.

Urban identity presents a macroframe (an all-encompassing frame) that is profiled in the discourse-world of the city. It is diagrammatically displayed in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Constituent frames within the URBAN IDENTITY macroframe

The URBAN IDENTITY macroframe is enacted by frames that generate meanings about Nottingham (a city and a unitary authority), the urban culture, the dominant values of the urban life, the daily routine, the local traditions and cultural symbols, the participants of the urban environment, the achievements of the city, the social problems and the social actors involved in decision-making. The macroframe is structured by four frames, such as Culture, Residents, Authorities, Economy (hereafter in bold). Each of them has its own perspective and a number of foci (in Fig. 1, the number of linguistic representations is indicated in brackets). In the next section, it will be discussed how these frames define, problematize and interpret the urban issues.

Results and discussion

The results of the analysis are structured according to four frames that were identified.

Urban identity as the issue of culture

The Culture frame comprises a number of slots varying from general characteristics of the urban cultural life and the city events to the cultural symbols (hereafter they are presented in italics). The slot Nottingham directs the readers’ attention to the events and phenomena of the city in its daily activity. The life of the city is positively evaluated. The media picture of the county capital stems from the predication strategy implementation, “which appear in stereotypical, evaluative attributions of positive or negative traits and implicit or explicit predicates” [16. P. 27].

The choice of facts and representations contribute to a positive evaluation of the city. Cf.: a great industrial tradition, the artistry of its world-famous lace industry, great writers such as Byron, Lawrence, and Sillitoe drew from this (27.06.17). A meliorative image of the city is due to the fact that Nottingham was named UNESCO City of Literature (11.12.15). The city also has the status of the City of Football (23.10.16). Focusing on the arts and the sportive success enhances a sustainable favorable vision of the city by the residents and the potential visitors. The semantics of adjectives, such as best, top, fastest-growing referring to the city, contributes to its glorification, especially in the headlines. Cf.: Nottingham has one of UK’s fastest-growing economies, says new report (21.04.17).

One more journalistic strategy that shapes the attractiveness of the city is argumentation, realized through the prioritized value given to the opinions of reputable citizens to justify positive attributions. For instance, editor of the Nottingham Post praised the innovation and creativity of Notts’ hospitality industry for helping the local economy to prosper (15.06.17).

Nottingham’s image is better visualized due to the stylistic effect created by the means of the rhetoric. In the context vibrant city center is helping fuel job creation (21.04.17), the metaphor fuel contributes to the expressive representation of the urban initiatives, which result in a rapid growth of new jobs for the population. Against the background of the city well-being effect, the image of the social actor that is responsible for ensuring it is profiled through the reference to the city administration. In this case the referential strategy, or strategy of nomination is used [16. P. 27].

The urban life is negatively assessed through the lens of private opinions of citizens who write posts having deprecation labelling. Cf.: Nottingham ‘one of the worst places to live in England’. That’s the case when the referential strategy (introduced by a toponym) can also be considered a predication strategy, because it involves connotatively negative evaluation.

The slot General characteristics encompasses ideas about the cultural life of the city and the whole county. The strategy of predication is mainly realized through epithets and metaphors rich culture and heritage, wealth of culture and lexicо-syntactical means commitment to culture, which contribute to the creation of a positive assessment of the cultural background. The readers can infer that the local authorities support and develop cultural traditions. Special attention is paid to the strategic development of the cultural initiatives and connections city’s strategic cultural framework.

The evaluative aspect of framing realizes as the formation of the urban attractiveness due to the metaphorical means. Cf.: Nottingham is home to an enviable wealth of culture, boasting artistic gems (27.06.17). A positive vision of the city is appreciatively expressed by metaphors. The initiative of putting Nottinghamshire at the heart of a cultural tourism experience (12.01.17) is given prominence and approval due to the articulation of the heart metaphor.

The Cultural symbols slot represents the image of Robin Hood, the city’s favourite folklore hero. It is actively used to create the attractiveness of the county, both to introduce local residents to the medieval culture and to encourage tourists and bolster visitors’ economy attraction. The medieval atmosphere is conveyed through the universally precedent widely known ballads, legends, tales and myths about the hero, and through a modern retransmission of the elements of good old England. For example, the urban artifacts, such as the tower in the shape of Robin Hood, galleries dedicated to Robin Hood, Robin Hood Castle. Special offers are designed to invite tourists on a 25-mile Robin Hood ride, Robin Hood Bike Ride, and events including the Robin Hood Beer and Cider Festival. ‘Anchoring’ on the image of Robin Hood allows the city marketers to recreate and exploit the British spirit of freedom, honor and nobility in order to acquire visitors and boost the city’s popularity as a tourist destination.

Other precedent phenomena from the country’s historical heritage are exploited within the predication strategy. They are the Luddite protests and the Chartist movement (27.06.2017). The semantics of the two includes knowledge of the English workers of the 19^th century who destroyed machinery (the Luddite), and tried to gain political rights (the Chartists). They also contribute to a vivid representation of historical and cultural facts that convince of the uniqueness of the county and create incentives for tourists.

Urban identity as the issue of residents

The residential frame is visible due to two slots. The slot Communities focuses on the forms of social organization that unite people on the basis of the common territorial, administrative, political, economic, religious, racial and other features. According to “The Post”, the following varieties of local communities co-exist in Nottingham: growing communities, economically disadvantaged communities, black community, LGBT community. Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, and Asian communities are distinguished by nationality.

The analysis of the key lexemes in their syntagmatic environment suggests that the work of the city administration as a social actor is positively assessed by the media. It is highlighted that the representatives of the administration take responsibility to the communities, satisfy interests of the local community, address local community needs, support them, and generally strive to benefit England’s communities, which stimulates positive change to the local community of Nottingham. Investing in communities is especially important for the city council, as funding will help build on the improvements already made, making it a great place both for visitors and the local community (30.06.2016). Thus, the initiative is aimed at improving the city life both for the residents and the potential visitors.

Against this ‘favorable’ background, however, the problem of racial and ethnic minorities discrimination is diagnosed. There is an acute social issue of the infringement of the black citizens’ rights. Cf. the following headline: Black Lives Matter hold Nottingham rally (05.08.2016). The reference to the precedent name in the headline draws attention to the social problem. This is due to the semantics of the name, associated with the social movement against racism and violence against the black. The mental representation, triggered by the name, induces knowledge of the Black movement, given rise in 2013, which reached the peak of the public outrage in 2020 after the murder of J. Floyd by an American policeman.

This social problem is often framed through the individual opinions of the citizens. The usual scheme of the journalistic argumentation is a direct quote. In the following example, a member of the Black community is quoted saying, I am disgusted by what is happening to the black community. He comes be enraged that 60 percent of black young people are unemployed”, comparing this figure for the white young people, and concludes that “black people in Britain do not have a voice (05.08.2016). Through the lens of the citizen’s opinion the problem of racial discrimination is represented as injustice, rusting the whole British society, where people with dark skin do not have the right to say a word for themselves.

Racial discrimination is also represented through the views of regular citizens in other contexts. Though the individual vision of a city dwellers who have faced the racial discrimination is telegraphed to the audience, the problem is almost never tied to the powerful organs or the city council. It is seldom discussed in terms of the administrative measures, taken to eliminate it. Attention is however paid to the development of special programmes, designed for the ethnic minorities. Suggestions relate to their involvement in sports, such as football, which can bring together communities for the greater good (01.12.15).

The slot People provides the readers with the knowledge about the local residents, especially the young, from the perspective of the initiatives taken by the city administration to ensure their well-being. The city residents are represented in need of help. The dynamic verbs denote physical and mental actions, undertaken by the local administration, which characterize how the city management is overseen by the authorities. They talk to local people face to face, interact with young people, protect local people, help disadvantaged young people, create jobs for local people. Thus, the positive image of the local authorities as a social actor is profiled in the discourse-world.

Metaphors and epithets are the main rhetorical means contributing to positively assessing the local youth within the predication strategy. They are characterized as incredible young people. The epithet incredible connotes appreciative evaluation — very good, wonderful, extraordinary. The positive presentation of the city administration is implemented in the semantics of commitment to work with the young people and guiding them away from crime. It is contextually specified. There should be more educational opportunities for children and young people, young people need to know about the history, they should get help to start their career. The responsibility to create jobs for young people is assigned to the local authority.

Alongside, the problem of the increasing number of young people compared to the older people in the county is raised. Cf. the headline: Is Nottingham just a city for young people now? (10.01.17). The article runs about the decline of people over 65. This issue is interpreted by the explosion metaphor implying the expansion of the major universities of the city, which results in a dramatic increase of students.

Urban identity as the issue of authorities

The Authorities frame uncovers ideas on the powers and actions of the city council and the local administration as a whole, carried out in different areas (finance, economic development, urban planning, environmental management, preservation of historical and cultural monuments, transport, housing policy, education, health, social protection, etc.).

The City Council slot provides understanding of the socially-friendly activities of the local authorities. The work of the city council is presented through the lens of their tackling local issues and the efforts, aimed at improving the quality of the urban life, for example, residential development, or transforming an uninspiring city centre, which is in need of a facelift (03.11.17). The use of a vivid metaphor facelift as a rhetorical means diagnoses the problem and enhances the need to change the city infrastructure.

A meliorative image of the city council is associated with the initiatives that ensure a healthy lifestyle of the citizens, for instance, the fight against smoking as a part of the city administration campaign. Statistics, integrated into the media texts in the form of reports about the city investment in projects designed to improve the urban environment, are a regular mechanism of indirect positive evaluation of the city council. Cf.: A city council report said it had contributed 50,000 in funding towards the project (23.11.17).

Social problems of the city are often described from the perspective of the measures taken by the city council to eliminate them. The employed action verbs specify that the city administration is empowered to take restrictive actions against the law-brakers (e.g. Nottingham City Council issues a Penalty Charge Notice). Charity events coverage also increases the appeal of the image. Cf.: The event — organized in partnership between Nottingham City Council and Wild in Art — will aim to bring together businesses, schools and the community in aid of the Nottinghamshire Hospice (28.06.17). The mechanism of inference enables readers to get a favorable impression of the city council involved in the organization of the event for the sake of the local hospice.

The Local authorities slot generates ideas about the local government. The journalistic strategies are identical to those discussed in the analysis of the previous slot. Positive presentation is a key implication underlying the media discourse construction of the authority image in both cases. The strategy of positive presentation builds up a favorable image on the ideas of mutual support and cooperation between organizations dealing with the city’s cultural heritage and the local authorities. They are said to work ‘in liaison with the local authority’.

The strategy of negative presentation of the local authorities is realized through references to the opinions of individual city dwellers. Cf.: The town has been allowed to decay into an urban slum, into a nowhere land, Nottingham and it’s councilors should be ashamed of themselves (21.01.17). In the above examples, the local authority is criticized for having allowed to turn part of the city into a slum.

Urban identity as the issue of economy

The economic frame comprises ideas about local businesses and production and consumption activities used to fulfill the needs of the city. The Business slot clarifies the role of the local commercial organizations in the urban life. The work of the local firms has got a positive evaluation (good work that local businesses do), this is evidenced by the creation of thousands of jobs. Local organizations work closely with other local businesses. Supporting local businesses determines the well-being of the local communities. Cf.: If we support our smaller, local businesses we are also supporting jobs for local people and our city’s economy (03.12.16).

It should be noted that several frames are often co-activated. In the above context, the Authorities frame is induced along with the Economy and the Residents frames. The conceptual interaction of these frames in DW of the city is provided by the reference to three social actors — the administration, the business representatives and the townspeople. The first social actor is referred to by the personal pronoun we, the second and third are introduced by descriptions local businesses and local people. “The Post” often pushes forward the idea that the local authority is committed to helping local businesses” and supports ‘independent businesses’ (02.01.16). Thus, the idea of a successful cooperation of the two sides for the benefit of the city is translated.

The Local economy slot focuses on the aspects of the socio-economic development of the urban environment. In the local media picture, the local economy is mostly framed in terms of businesses, which are so important, because they boost the local economy, encourage to increase or improve. One of the dominant businesses contributing to the local well-being is tourism. The importance of it to the local economy is regularly highlighted. It presents great value to the local economy. The idea of encouraging the development of tourism, the hotel sector, in particular, is proliferated in the local media. In this case, Notts’ hospitality industry will help the local economy to prosper. Presentation of the urban identity issues is usually due to a simultaneous activation of several frames that may have different points of focus on particular aspects of the urban living.

Conclusion

The urban identity explored through the media framing allows us to draw the following conclusions. The media representations of the urban identity rest on frame structures of different conceptual complexity. Urban identity is a macroframe overarching conceptual structure that is observable in the discourse-world of the city due to the synergies of the constituent frames. The urban identity is predominantly framed in four major perspectives: as an issue of culture, residents, authority, economy. The frames influence the way urban issues are articulated and problematized. The case study has shown that the established frames appear in the local media to concentrate on the county capital in its everyday activity, the urban cultural events, the cultural symbols, the residents, the authorities, and the economic development.

A meliorative image of the city is foregrounded. The achievements of the city policy, carried out by the local authorities in the interests of the public, are brought to the fore. These include cultural events, their educational and economic value, as well as initiatives designed to make the city more comfortable for local communities. Against this backdrop, the areas of social concern are revealed. Negative assessment of the local authorities, as well as organizations designed to eliminate social problems, is mainly carried out through the individual opinions of the townspeople. Sharp criticism of the local administration as a social actor responsible for the well-being of the city is most often realized as an emotional reaction of regular people dissatisfied with their work. The local media legitimize the existing authorities to suit their interests. Positive presentation of the city authorities stands out as the leading discursive macro-strategy aimed at supporting and approving of the initiatives taken by the officials, regardless of whether the social problem is indicated or not in the message. This macro-strategy is realized through the strategies of reference, predication, and argumentation.

The referential strategy is mainly articulated by proper names, deictics, and descriptions with identifying semantics. They are employed to denote the social actors, responsible for the urban living, and those participating in it. The predication strategy primarily employs attributes, predicates, rhetorical figures, literary devices (precedent names, allusions) to assess the quality and character of the social actors’ actions. The argumentation strategy presents the urban life to suit the interests of the local authorities, mainly through the quotes by the city people or references to the people of authority. Framing of the urban identity is due to the activation of cognitive schemata that provide a positive presentation of the local management system and boost the appeal of the county. The further media framing analysis could be beneficial for solving the urban policy issues.

 

^{1 The Nottingham Post. URL: https://www.nottinghampost.com (accessed: 15.01.2022).}

^{2 URL: https://74.ru/text/gorod/2016/09/02/51034921/  (accessed: 15.01.2022).}

About the authors

Svetlana L. Kushneruk

Chelyabinsk State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: Svetlana_kush@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4447-4606

Dr. Sci. in Philology, Professor of the Theory and Practice of the English Language Department

129, Br. Kashirinykh Str., Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation, 454001

Maria A. Kurochkina

South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University

Email: kma1974@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0048-483X

Ph.D., Associate Professor of the English Philology Department

69, Lenin Av., Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation, 454080

References

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