Cities of Mordovia: identity in media discourse

Abstract

Nowadays, the city with its unique local and historical features is placed into the focus of the modern urban media. Media text verbalizes the results of a person’s subjective perception of the surrounding urban space and represents the identity of the city. The purpose of this article is to identify the representation of the «urban identity» concept in the media of the Republic of Mordovia — both in city and republican newspapers and social networks. The authors conducted content analysis of the articles published in city newspapers and the comments to the posts of local Internet communities regarding their ideas about the city. Analysis of the print media deduced that the municipal authorities realize the urgency of the urban identity formation under the competition for human, informational and economic resources. The editorial boards of newspapers do a lot to create a positive image of the city. Local urban Internet communities, which has recently appeared in the regional media space, have a powerful influence on public opinion. Their communication is built mainly around the private problems of everyday urban life and is accompanied by negative evaluation of those. It was established that active discussion of problems leads to active post-discussion, post-provocation, post-hype, post-photography, post – criticism of the authorities, post – dialogue with a representative of the authorities, post – question and post-game. There is an asymmetry in the representation of the city image created, on the one hand, by the print media, and, on the other hand, by the participants in the Internet communities. The study identified the markers that can be significant for the citizens. It also detected the dependence of the construction of the Mordovia’s cities identity and its representation and the communicative practices of the urban population.