Local Media Discourse Research Articles

“Locked out of Lynn”: A portrait of youth symbolic creativity in a gentrifying city

In the United States, lower-income urban youth are coming of age in community contexts marked by widespread gentrification and deepening inequality. Yet, the initial changes associated with gentrification are subtle and are often celebrated in local media discourse—creating added uncertainty for youth as they endeavor to make sense of the changes they see. In this article, I investigate how youth from disparate backgrounds began to make sense of urban change through the lens of gentrification. Drawing on concepts from the field of cultural studies, I discuss three kinds of meaning-making that unfolded as the young people in my study began to co-construct shared understandings about the interlocking symbolic, political, and spatial inequalities that comprise gentrification. In turn, I argue that creating space for youth’s creative symbolic work can provide a forum for youth to develop the shared understandings needed to pursue collective action.

Трансформация образа героя в медийном дискурсе

The study aims to identify the features peculiar to the heroic paradigm transformation in the modern media discourse using the material of the local media. Scientific novelty of the study lies in applying the systemic integral approach that allows for an analytical description of a hero’s image, which makes it possible to identify both specific and universal trends in representation of a hero’s image in the local media discourse. As a result of the study, the researchers have considered the notion of a media hero, determined features of the local media heroification, using the example of Chelyabinsk Oblast, demonstrated transformation of the heroic paradigm, which is underway in the mass media as relevant transmitters of images, patterns of behaviour and values.

Media Portrayal of Ex-offenders in Singapore

This paper is a review of the media portrayals of ex-offenders in local news media platforms such as The Straits Times, Today and Channel NewsAsia. This paper analyzes the voices represented in the media on the issue of reintegration of ex-offenders into society. From the analysis of n=182 media articles, three key themes arise in local media discourse that emphasize the role of key players — the government, the ex-offender and the community — in reintegrating ex-offenders into society. These themes raise several questions on the media framing of ex-offenders, the order of prioritization in voices and the erasure of some voices from the discourse. Through delving deeper into the questions, this paper offers valuable insights into the media discourse of ex-offenders in Singapore and the fundamental question of what ‘reintegration’ means.

Creative industry and cultural tourism destination Lake Constance – a media discourse analysis

The following media discourse analysis examines the news media coverage of four regional online newspapers, about the topics “creative industries” and “cultural tourism” at Lake Constance region in the period from 2006 until 2016. The results show that, besides event-relater reporting, there is currently no vibrant media discourse on the topics “creative industries” and “cultural tourism”. Even though the image of the Lake Constance region is heavily influenced by tourism, “cultural tourism” also plays a secondary role when it comes to regional news reporting. Moreover, discourses do not overlap and thus no synergies within the local media discourse are formed. This result is relevant for the regional tourism development, because the cooperation between “creative industries” and “cultural tourism” creates opportunities such as the expansion of the tourism offer and an extension of the tourist season. To activate unused opportunities at the different destinations of the region, a supra-regional visibility of the sector “creative industries” should be developed and the cooperation of the sector with local stakeholders of cultural tourism should be promoted.

Riots in Indonesian Main Island: Peace Action of Defend Islam Impact on Economic Environment in Local Media Discourse

Indonesia is a maritime country with the largest numbers of islands in the world which covering more than seventeen thousands islands. There are thousand tribes and ethnics with their cultures suppose to be enriching the diversity of Indonesia. However a series of riots happening in Indonesia including Aksi Bela Islam (ABI) recently challenging the unity in diversity of Indonesia. This present study tries to describe Aksi Bela Islam (ABI) (The Peace Action of Defend Islam) rally that run peacefully brings impacts on Indonesia economic sector as stable social and political condition will bring significant impact on Indonesia economic sector. The rally is a long journey of Indonesia of Muslim majority to seek justice as the Republic of Indonesia State Police seems not to be serious to handle the Islamic blasphemy case. Through the framing approach, it will be described how ABI brings impacts on the economic sector focusing on the study on the media perspectives. From the perspective of one leading economic magazines in Indonesia Bisnis Indonesia.The framing from the media evidently showed that the rallyfollowed by millions of Indonesian Muslims does not bring negative impacts on the economic sector of Indonesia sinceit run peacefully, well manage and safe so the market gives a positive response and appreciationto the action.

Sustaining Systemic Racism Through Psychological Gaslighting: Denials of Racial Profiling and Justifications of Carding by Police Utilizing Local News Media

This article examines Police Services and local media discourses on street checks in Hamilton, Ontario, from June 2015 to April 2016 and their usage as a form of psychological abuse known as gaslighting. Despite the widespread coverage that the Hamilton Police Service received as a result of being linked to systemic racist practices, a year later, the Hamilton Police Service was able to avoid being implicated in deliberately conducting racial profiling through strategic tactics in the discourse they relied upon and presented in the media. Through an analysis of 27 local news media articles on the topic of street checks, it is argued that the Police Services and local media discourse enact gaslighting, a form of psychological abuse that is used to manipulate object(s) in order to deceive and undermine the credibility of the target. The psychological effects of gaslighting on people of color included a sense of alienation, disenfranchisement from the community, and distrust toward the police. Through a case study application, it is suggested that gaslighting is part of a systemic, historical process of racism that has been used by the police and government organizations to both illegally target people of color and deny complicity in racial profiling.

The conditions for the reproduction of the SAGUAPAC water cooperative in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia: discourse analysis

The SAGUAPAC cooperative in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Eastern Bolivia) is regularly presented as an example of cooperative successes regarding water supply and sanitation. Its efficiency, both economic and technical, is widely considered as the main reason for its reproduction. However, without denying its importance, we show, through a discourse analysis from and about SAGUAPAC in local media, that moral and non-instrumental factors are crucial in the reproduction of the cooperative. These factors create attachment and affection toward the cooperative, through a storytelling technique using a four-dimensional rhetoric (mythification, identification, emotionalisation and personification). This storytelling technique, internalized in the local media discourse and materializing the so-called new spirit of capitalism, exploits the affects and instrumentalises local myths and legends, as well as the ‘camba’ ethnic identity. In that, it tends to retain SAGUAPAC members and to canvass new ones, by providing them with recognition in their quality of local community members. However, the mobilisation of social norms and power hierarchies might end up reinforcing the social exclusion of Andean non-camba immigrants, inspite of an a priori inclusive and democratic organisation of the cooperative.

Racism and the politics of signification: Israeli public discourse on racism towards Palestinian citizens

This paper explores the phenomenology of racism using the Israeli situation as a case study to examine if, when and how the concept of ‘racism’ is employed in local media discourse on policy towards Palestinian citizens. Our central argument is that racism, as a signifier of policy, can be located in the dialectic between denial and affirmation of the category of race, while we link the scope and meanings of practices marked by the media as ‘racism’ to contingent cultural, social and historical conditions. The article proposes the periodization of the relevant discourse into three primary phases: from 1949 to the late 1970s, when the category of racism was ‘prohibited’ in Israeli discourse in the aftermath of the Holocaust; the mid-1980s, when this taboo was broken and the phenomena included in the category of racism expanded accordingly; and the 1990s to 2000, during which racism became an institutionalized, all-encompassing discursive term.