The social construction of environment in Latvian local newspapers
2018
Bucholtz, I., Vidzeme Univ. of Applied Sciences, Valmiera (Latvia). Inst. of Social, Economic and Humanities Research
This paper examines the content of four local Latvian newspapers in order to find out how the media construct the environment of four inhabited places — Mazsalaca, Kandava, Kraslava, and Kemeri. The analysis of newspapers “Liesma,” “Neatkarigas Tukuma zinas,” “Ezerzeme,” and “Jurmalas vards” show that during the last six months of 2017, the most prominent themes that describe local landscapes were nature and ecology, agriculture, social environment, people, surroundings, and events, belonging and identity, and borders. While the newspapers differ in the attention they pay to some themes, the dominating meanings attached to the places they cover share similarities. The newspapers acknowledge the social and economic challenges of the inhabited places they cover, but at the same time, they emphasise what they interpret as unique qualities of the place, such as nature, people, and cultural heritage. Thus, the analysis shows how media, through negotiating and enforcing meanings of physical environments, take part in shaping local landscapes, which emerge as culturally grounded symbolic expressions recognized by the local communities.
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