URBAN LIFE THROUGH THE LENS OF THE LOCAL PRESS: FRAME ANALYSIS
The article focuses on cognitive-discursive aspects of framing a panorama of urban life in the media and presents a part of the results within a broader project, dedicated to media representations of social problems in twin cities. Corpus-assisted approach, discourse analysis and framing analysis are employed to find out mechanisms of meaning construction about the city of Nottingham (twin city of Chelyabinsk, Russia) in the British local paper. It is argued that discourse-world of the city is a representational structure that it activated due to media frames. The term of URBAN IDENTITY macroframe is introduced to denote a complex mental construct, generated in the media discourse, which semantically comprises identification with the city dwellers, their sense of belonging to the urban life and the daily experiences. The analysis of URBAN IDENTITY macroframe reveals the constituting frames and slots that direct readers’ attention to social and cultural aspects of the urban life. Positive presentation of the city administration is proved to be the discursive macrostrategy used by journalists to support the legitimacy of the local authority and enhance the attractiveness of the city both for residents and tourists.