Media Discourse as a Generator of the Urban Imaginary

Abstract

The article studies the urban imaginary generating processes in modern society. The relevance of this interdisciplinary problem is proved by the fragmanted character of the existing research in this area including urban practices diversity through which the city is imagined. The author demonstrates that media discourse is an urban imaginary generator, and it determines how the city is presented and perceived today. The theoretical analysis of the media discourses’ specifics that generate the urban imaginary is carried out in three key modes. The article reveals the specifics of media discourse, impacting the real and virtual collective city representations formation by appealing to discursive practices various modes: media content structuring, discourse actors, media technologies features alongside symbolic fight for city mental images. Besides, the author identifies the media discourses types based on research practices aimed at studying the urban imaginary generating features (media images, place uniqueness, urban space semiotics, urban discourses, etc.). The research also contains the author’s typology of media discourses, producing urban imaginary, is the main result of the researches based on the A. Lefebvre “Production of space” theory: a) media discourse of city space representation (official discourse); b) urban space media discourse (citizens discourse); c) urban practices’ media discourse (communities discourses). Such an analysis and the above typology allow to reveal the variety of the discursive practices production areas in the media sphere, the dominant vectors of the city’s meanings constructing, thus, to explain the discourse landscape, projecting different city representations.