Voices from the Periphery: (De-)Constructing and Contesting Public Narratives about Post-Industrial Marginalization (VOICES)

“后工业主义”在公共和学术话语中通常被理解为腐朽、剥夺、贫困、失业、极端主义和种族主义的代码。这些后工业社会的刻板印象和污名化的形象通常通过媒体进入社会意识。然而，后工业社区的居民是否认同这些公共叙事，甚至认为自己是局外人，被剥夺权力和被剥夺权利-换句话说，作为“边缘化”-是声音项目试图填补的研究空白之一。本研究采用了一种系统的研究设计，以批判话语理论和社会结构/不平等研究为基础，旨在对比精英中心和草根视角对后工业社会边缘化的看法：首先，通过考察媒体在后工业社会边缘化的公共建构和后工业社会边缘化身份形成中的关键作用;第二，通过对后工业中心居民主体化模式的探讨，来对抗主流的大众媒介叙事。两个专题工作包将调查五个相互关联的领域，以分析文化表现，如边缘化：媒体监管，媒体生产和代表（自上而下的观点），媒体消费和后工业环境的身份（自下而上的观点）。这项研究将比较北方英格兰的三个城市（米德尔斯堡、罗瑟勒姆和雷德卡）和德国东部的三个城市（布吕滕施塔特、魏斯瓦瑟和劳赫哈默），所有这些城市都见证了历史上形成身份的工业工作的衰落。这些后工业社会的生活现实将通过公民科学的方法变得有形，包括定性的讲故事沙龙，深入访谈，焦点小组和日记-最终的目标是提供一个更细致入微的后工业环境的视角和他们的自我感知，经验，感受和观点，包括那些可能对一个国家的民主文化产生负面影响的观点。在媒体方面，计划对相关新闻和社交媒体进行批评性话语分析，并对记者和焦点群体进行访谈，以确定两国媒体系统内潜在的边缘化驱动因素。通过这种整体的、系统的和比较的方法，VOICES项目的科学目标是（重新）概念化“媒体边缘化”，使这一概念在社会结构/不平等研究、媒体和传播研究的交叉点上为未来的研究带来成果。该项目的主要影响是提出建议，以减轻媒体边缘化，并通过数字讲故事沙龙、播客和报道边缘化问题的记者准则等各种产出，让来自公共边缘化社区的人发表意见并倾听他们的意见。

Summary of the VOICES project'Post-industrialism' is often understood in public and academic discourse as code for decay,deprivation, poverty, unemployment, extremism and racism. These stereotypical andstigmatizing images of post-industrial communities usually enter a society's consciousnessthrough the media. However, whether residents of post-industrial communities identify withthese public narratives, even perceive themselves as outsiders, disempowered anddisadvantaged-in other words, as 'marginalized'-is one of the research gaps that theVOICES project seeks to fill. Using a systematic research design informed by critical discoursetheory and social structure/inequality research, the project aims to contrast an elite-centeredwith a grassroots perspective on the marginalization of post-industrial milieus: first, byexamining the role of the media as key agents in the public construction of post-industrialmarginalization and the formation of post-industrial marginalized identities; and second, byexploring the modes of subjectification of residents of post-industrial centers against thesedominant mass-mediated narratives. Two thematic work packages will investigate fiveinterrelated areas to analyze cultural manifestations such as marginalization: media regulation,media production and representation (top-down perspectives), media consumption, and theidentity of post-industrial milieus (bottom-up perspectives). The study will compare threecommunities in Northern England (Middlesbrough, Rotherham and Redcar) and EasternGermany (Eisenhüttenstadt, Weisswasser and Lauchhammer), all of which have seen thedecline of historically identity-forming industrial work. The lived realities of these post-industrialcommunities will be made tangible through a citizen science approach, including qualitativestorytelling salons, in-depth interviews, focus groups and diaries-ultimately with the goal ofproviding a more nuanced perspective of post-industrial milieus and their self-perceptions,experiences, feelings and views, including those that may have a negative impact on a nation'sdemocratic culture. On the media front, critical discourse analyses of relevant news and socialmedia, as well as interviews with journalists and focus groups, are planned to identify potentialmarginalization drivers within both countries' media systems. Through this holistic, systematicand comparative approach, the scientific aim of the VOICES project is to (re)conceptualize'media marginalization' to make the concept fruitful for future research at the intersection ofsocial structure/inequality research, media and communication studies. The main impact of theproject is to develop recommendations to mitigate media marginalization and to give voice toand listen to people from publicly marginalized communities through a variety of outputs suchas digital storytelling salons, podcasts and journalist guidelines for reporting onmarginalization.