Talia MARGALIT, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Current planning debates are expanding beyond traditional participatory and regulatory frameworks (McAuliffe & Rogers, 2019), while officials, developers and activists increasingly rely on mass media to promote their perspectives (Rogers, 2016). Yet scholars doubt whether for-profit media empowers activism, as they usually support officials and existing market-led power relations (Herman & Chomsky, 2002).
This paper focuses on the intense coverage of plans and planning debates in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. I analyzed the full coverage and planning activity by five leading Israeli media outlets along five recent years, identified the spaces journalists gave to certain plans, their highlights and silences and how they represented various areas, issues and people. I found that journalists focused more on plans that provoked residents' activism. However, this did not mean that media adapted an anti-market agenda. They covered mobilizations against entrepreneurial projects and also against the reduction of property and development rights in projects. I discuss this realm as part of the current urban culture in large and expensive cities, such as Tel Aviv, and question the roles of media, planners and activists in preserving the neoliberal narrative.
Mots clés : activism|property rights|media|urban regeneration|planning debates
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