The representation of touristification in media through mapping: the case of Malaga

A representação da touristificação nos meios de comunicação através da cartografia: o caso de Málaga

Francisco José Chamizo-Nieto franciscochamizo@uma.es

University of Malaga, Spain

Nuria Nebot-Gómez de Salazar

University of Malaga, Spain

Carlos Rosa-Jiménez

University of Malaga, Spain

Andrea Castro-Martínez

University of Malaga, Spain

The paradigm shift in communication due to digitalisation has changed human interactions over recent decades (Arjona-Martín; Méndiz-Noguero; Victoria-Mas, 2020), and these relationships are taking place in a highly complex and continuously evolving scenario (Kim; Kang; Lee, 2021). Moreover, ‘cyberculture’ and its influence on social practices are predominant in the current context (Durmus, 2021; Lévy, 2007; Turner, 2021). Thus, media ecology has evolved towards message convergence and dissemination through different broadcasting nodes, which sometimes leads citizens to increase their participation and raise levels of democratic involvement (Jenkins; Ford; Green, 2013; Kobayashi; Ikeda; Miyata, 2006; Viché González, 2018). However, these changes occur in the classical public sphere simultaneously with the digital one (Dahlgren, 2018). These spheres overlap and alternate and, in the resulting mix, the former continues to be characterised by the power of mainstream media and the shaping of public opinion (Benkler, 2015; Matthes, 2012). In this regard, media discourse aims to address both audiences including the political one, showing the strong and reciprocal influence of all spheres involved (Aruguete, 2017).

Open access information is a democratic feature (Suárez-Villegas et al., 2017), so the existence of media resources apart from large communication conglomerates contributes to democracy (Roel; Lafuente, 2005). Moreover, with the advent of the digital press or ‘cybermedia’ (Mayoral Sánchez; Abejón Mendoza; Morata Santos, 2016), not only have traditional media been forced to update their practices but they have also joined social networks to manage content and relate more fluidly and closely with their audiences (Caldera-Serrano; Romo-Fernández; Gómez-Crisóstomo, 2017; Cortés-Campos, 2016). Thus, social networks and digital editions have contributed to increasing public trust in the media, since they promote collaborative spaces for participation in the digital sphere (Lara, 2008; Torres-Martín; Castro-Martínez, 2021). Indeed, the traditional public preference for reliable media to access information has also been maintained during the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic due to the high demand for information (Masip et al., 2020), especially from established and long-established sources (Casero-Ripollés, 2020).

The role of the media as ‘gatekeepers’ (De-León-Vázquez, 2003; White, 1950) makes filtering inevitable to select, prioritise or reject information that is considered newsworthy (Wolf, 1987), thereby deciding de facto what does or does not appear in media coverage. In this context, the agenda-setting theory is applied, which shows how the media influences the population about what they should think in the short term and what issues should be relevant to public opinion (McCombs; Valenzuela, 2021). In this regard, the well-known agenda-building process is how those themes become part of the public debate. Eilders (1997) argues that if an issue is considered significant, it must achieve a high level of congruence in several media so that they all focus on the same topic similarly. This approach is related to framing theory, which is based on the idea that the news frames the shape and condition in which events are presented through messages, establishing which news stories dominates and which does not (Muñiz, 2020; Semetko; Valkenburg, 2000; Vreese, 2005).

The presence of social movements has proliferated in the digital public sphere over the past few years. Nevertheless, only when the channelling of their demands is effective outside the digital space does it produce real recognition by the administration, so they must gain recognition as part of the public sphere (Sosa Valcarcel; Galarza Fernández; Castro-Martínez, 2019). When movements manage to make themselves public in the media, public protests are, arguably, not an effective way of communicating their demands (Smith et al., 2001). To address this, they can be planted in public opinion using other strategies to obtain coverage and communicate their messages and demands.

Urban tourism has been one of the most widely covered topics in newspapers around the world in recent years (Table 1). The stakeholders involved, such as residents, take issue with the touristification phenomenon (Colomb; Novy, 2017), especially in southern European cities (Sequera; Nofre, 2019). The term ‘touristification’ refers to the use of public space by tourists and how their demands replace residential use and local trade for peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation and franchises, respectively (Brossat, 2019; Vollmer, 2019). This has a negative impact on residents due to the growth of tourism in their cities, such as the expulsion of inhabitants in the name of ‘tourism gentrification’ (Gotham, 2005). Thus, many conflicts and disputes have emerged from defending the right to the city and the local identity of existing urban populations (Blanco-Romero et al., 2019; Calle Vaquero, 2019; Valdivielso; Moranta, 2019).

Table 1
Studies on touristification through content analysis in newspapers.

Note:* The start date analysis and the sum of news items analysed for each newspaper, and in total are shown where data are provided in the cited study. Source: Authors (2022).

Recent research has explored how newspapers cover community groups, residents and other actors involved in the conflict of interests due to urban tourism, through content analysis (Table 1). These qualitative and/or quantitative analyses offer insights into the struggles with the touristification phenomenon (Egio-Rubio; Fernández Toledo, 2020; Huízar Sanchéz; López Ramos; Baños Francia, 2020; Mansilla López, 2019) and identify relevant related topics such as: (1) Airbnb (Hassanli; Small; Darcy, 2022; Lehmann et al., 2020; Ozdemir; Turker, 2019); (2) gentrification (Adelman; Balta Ozgen; Rabii, 2019; Gin; Taylor, 2010; Ley; Teo, 2014); (3) overtourism (González-Reverté; Soliguer-Guix, 2022; Guizi; Breda; Costa, 2020; Mínguez; Blanco-Romero; Blázquez-Salom, 2022); (4) urban tourism (Boager; Castro, 2022); (5) tourism phobia (Pérez-García; García Abad, 2018); (6) rooming houses, which provide short-term rentals (Grant; Derksen; Ramos, 2019); and (7) hipsters, whose associated lifestyle has a spatial dimension contributing to the gentrification phenomenon (le Grand, 2020).

All of them analyse the journalistic treatment of touristification through their discourse, but it is necessary to have a spatial perspective to identify the urban areas that the press focus on. Although, in this regard, Mínguez, Blanco-Romero and Blázquez-Salom (2022) map the spatial distribution of the number of news items published in the period analysed, the sum of news is desegregated by regions since the study area refers to a country. On a lesser scale, Ley and Teo (2014) map gentrification events reported by one of the newspapers considered in the analysis. However, these stories are represented by points and accounted for by neighbourhoods and districts, it is not possible to identify on a map which event is most news according to the sum of the news that report it. In this regard, it is necessary to define how to map thematic content from newspapers by neighbourhood as a territorial unit. Not only is it important to show which urban areas are reported in the press, but it is also necessary to identify on a map which stakeholders take part in the conflict of interest because of urban tourism. A few research studies list stakeholders by actors’ groups such as residents, market agents or tourists, but it is not shown where they operate through their geolocation (Boager; Castro, 2022; Egio-Rubio; Fernández Toledo, 2020; Grant; Derksen; Ramos, 2019; Guizi; Breda; Costa, 2020; Lehmann et al., 2020). From a territorial perspective, few studies have focused on mapping touristification using newspaper-related content and stakeholders. Such studies would allow an in-depth analysis of the spatial representation of the touristification processes in a city. This is the research gap that serves as a basis for the present work.

The current work presents a methodology that can be used to map touristification content from newspapers by neighbourhoods and identify the actors that take part in the conflict of interest because of overtourism. The main goal is the spatial representation of (1) covered touristification issues that are measured according to the sum of news articles by neighbourhood as territorial unit and (2) stakeholders involved through geolocation. This would help identify urban areas where the negative impacts of tourism intensification take place as well as those with conflicts of interest between the local population and visitors, among other actors. The identification of these issues and actors on a map will allow local administrations to adopt future urban policies to address tourism gentrification in those neighbourhoods at risk of being touristified or under tourism intensification.

Six categories have been assigned to the news items according to the content addressed (Table 3). Moreover, the geographical specificity of the news is considered at the neighbourhood level thanks to the mention of streets, squares, buildings, districts or even neighbourhood names in the news. Content analysis and neighbourhood coding show a total of 95 neighbourhoods with representation in newspapers from the total of 417 making up the entire municipality of Malaga (Table 4). To measure the representation of the touristification categories in the press, a red gradient has been chosen to identify mainstream neighbourhoods by ranges according to the Jenks natural breaks optimisation (Figure 2). R5 and R4 identify those over-represented neighbourhoods with the highest values, whereas R1 has the lowest; R0 refers to those neighbourhoods in the press which focus on at least one of the six themes’ content, but they do not report on a specific category separately. It is highlighted that the historic centre ranks first on the list at the top of news items which report every touristification category. Moreover, the city centre tops the list within the fifth range (R5), but not those neighbourhoods close to it, which are in a lower range (R4). This shows how print media focus on the old town as expected due to this urban area centralising tourist facilities (Chamizo-Nieto et al., 2022a). Additionally, there is a strong and significant correlation (r = 0.812; p < 0.001) between the number of news items which report neighbourhoods and the number of citizen initiatives geolocated there. This suggests that the spatial spread of the debate over the city is dependent on the old town and surrounding neighbourhoods, which allows protest and resistance movements to emerge in those neighbourhoods with tourism intensification (Chamizo-Nieto et al., 2022b).

Figure 2
Touristification issues in Malaga by neighbourhood in the press.
Source: Authors (2022).

Focusing on the sample’s temporal distribution (Figure 1), it is highlighted that the first news item collected includes the term ‘gentrificación’ (gentrification) for the first time in Málaga hoy. In this regard, it was not until 8 years later, in 2016, that the selected keywords started to be included in local news articles. Thus, the volume of news articles related to touristification is minimal at the beginning of the period analysed (2008-2016), but increases strongly to more than 50% of the total from 2017 until the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020. Simultaneously, the mean length of news items increases according to the mainstream relevance of touristification as a key social issue, especially from April to June 2018, because of several events such as: (1) citizen participation meetings and collaborative urban design in the European context of Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategies (ISUDS); (2) regulatory developments for the establishment of a noise pollution limit in several areas of the old town; (3) the demand for a common legislative framework on short-term rentals to regulate Airbnb offerings; and (4) emerging local protests and resistance movements against the rapid rise of P2P accommodation.

All newspapers considered show differences in the number of news items published: La Opinión de Málaga is in first place, with a total of 75 news items, followed by Málaga hoy and Diario SUR, with 55 and 36 articles, respectively. Likewise, a content analysis by categories shows differences in the topic published even spatially (Figure 2). It is pointed out that some topics feature repeatedly in a wide-ranging collection of news items about tourism issues (Table 3): 58.43% on access to housing problems due to the lack of long-term rentals replaced by P2P accommodation (C4). This topic is also related to its regulation (57.23%; D1) to avoid the displacement of inhabitants to the city edge (Ioannides; Röslmaier; van der Zee, 2019; Jover; Díaz-Parra, 2022). That issue has been largely influenced by the tourism intensification policies spread across the city for the last decade (60.24%; E1), promoted by the European nomination of Málaga Ciudad de Museos: Donde habita el arte in 2016. Thus, the new cluster of cultural facilities created (Ramos Lizana, 2008) has attracted the Airbnb offer (Chamizo-Nieto et al., 2022a), which has also increased the sightseeing attractiveness of franchises in the city centre (Barrera-Fernández; García-Bujalance; Scalici, 2019). This tourism specialisation is also detected in other topics related to, although to a lesser extent, the loss of day-to-day commerce (24.70%; C1). Other newsworthy topics about safeguarding the local identity and culture of residents (E2) and tourist accommodation (D2) stand out with the same newspapers’ representation measured in news coverage with a 47.59% frequency.

There is also an ideological use of touristification according to the political narrative, the interests of publishers and the social context at the posted moment (Gin; Taylor, 2010), as shown by discourse analysis in Malaga. Thus, the most-read local newspapers’ coverage of local tourism development is controversial, as 55 news articles are in favour, whereas 94 are against, and 17 of the sample do not take an explicit position on the debate. It is highlighted that the COVID pandemic affected discourse narratives in Malaga and in the rest of Spain (Mínguez; Blanco-Romero; Blázquez-Salom, 2022). The declaration of a state of alarm brought in healthcare measures such as the lockdown of the population, closed borders and suspension of any non-essential activity. It generated different narratives of economic reactivation due to the dependence on tourism and the adoption of health guarantees for promoting COVID-free destinations. Like the Barcelona press (González-Reverté; Soliguer-Guix, 2022), these messages in the journalistic narrative were also reflected in the most-read newspapers of Malaga from the start of the state of alarm—14^th March of 2020. However, some of the different actors involved provided different narratives from a critical viewpoint on the revival of tourism, but they were under-represented. Thus, from this date until the end of 2020, the critical discourse against tourism issues diminished considerably. Thus, 25 of 41 news items collected focused on a positive outlook in favour of tourism reactivation, whereas 11 were against the return to pre-pandemic tourism in the short term, and 5 were impartial.

Data mapping

To further improve the diagnosis of touristification, categorised data mapping serves to show the differences between topics spatially. Figure 2 maps the six categories defined around touristification issues. Neighbourhoods mentioned in the press (N = 95) are mapped according to the sum of news items, which covers everyone, and they are coloured with a red gradient by ranges according to the Jenks natural breaks optimisation. The mainstream neighbourhood is the old town for all categories (R5), and the surrounding ones are at a lower level (R4). The spatial urban pattern is as follows: there is a decrease in the number of news items per neighbourhood as we move away from the historic centre, but not gradually in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic category. The neighbourhoods around the historic centre are considered a new growth area for sightseeing facilities due to the old town’s tourist attractiveness (Chamizo-Nieto et al., 2022a). One of the most-covered impacts of this specialisation on tourism in this area is the displacement of long-term rentals (97; C4), considering that P2P accommodation is increasing (95; D1) in competition with hotels (79; D2), and all in the context of a process of intensification of tourism (100; E1). Due to this, there is an over-representation of the city centre and neighbourhoods close to it, as shown on the map (see top 7 in Table 4). Likewise, these neighbourhoods belong to the city centre, which contains most of the urban regeneration priority locations (66; B1-3) also widely reported in the press throughout all design phases (Chamizo-Nieto; Nebot-Gómez de Salazar; Rosa-Jiménez, 2020). It is highlighted that not only are newspapers focused on the city centre and surroundings, but they also cover the coastline. However, it is noticed that there is a lesser representation on the waterfront eastwards and some of the outlying neighbourhoods of the old town (R3). It shows where future urban areas of tourism development might lie and where touristification issues might occur far from the city centre and its surroundings. In this regard, the spatial representation of the touristification process over the city not only displays where issues happen, but also shows new areas as ‘gentrification mainstream’ (Holm, 2013) because of urban tourism.

Table 4
Thematic content in the Malaga press about the neighbourhoods covered by newspapers (N = 95/417).

Note* ‘All citizen initiatives’ refers to active and non-actives ones.** A news item can cover more than one category. The neighbourhoods mentioned in the press have been listed according to the sum of news articles covering the defined categories (A–F) in them, with the highest at the top and the lowest at the bottom. Data have been tagged by ranges in a sequential colour code according to the Jenks natural breaks optimisation (Figure 2): the lowest values are in white and the highest ones are in red. Source: authors.

Focusing on the citizen initiatives (Figure 3), 229 are represented in the most-read local newspapers batched by stakeholder groups, such as neighbourhood associations and emerging platforms. However, 153 are located in the municipality of Malaga and 88 of them are active according to their proposals posted in the press to tackle touristification. Notably, there is a strong positive correlation between the representation of neighbourhoods in the press according to the sum of news articles that report them and the number of active citizen initiatives located there (r = 0.777; p < 0.001), which seems to indicate greater activism where negative-growth tourism impacts happen. Nevertheless, this spatial relationship does not occur in those neighbourhoods categorised by R3: those neighbourhoods close to the old town and surroundings and along the coastline. This lesser citizen response in urban areas to the process of touristification could explain the emergence of resistance movements once tourism specialisation is at its peak.

Figure 3
Citizen initiatives involved in the touristification phenomenon of Malaga.
Source: Authors (2022).

Media visualise and legitimise claims in the eyes of the public. This source is mainly considered in communication studies, but the present work serves to promote further research with the press also from the perspective of urban studies. Within the context of urban tourism, the press focuses on the touristification agenda in those tourist destinations with considerable tourism intensification, especially in the city centre. Based on content analysis, categorised data mapping may serve as a basis for the local administration to identify urban areas under touristification and elaborate urban policies to tackle this phenomenon. Moreover, mapping citizen initiatives shows the different actors involved in the tourist city. The spatial correlation between the sum of news items by neighbourhood about touristification and active citizen initiatives located in shows where the negative impacts of urban tourism happen and reveals the need to regulate tourism intensification and safeguard residential use. In this regard, the identification of the stakeholders involved can be used for new research on indicator systems to measure urban areas undergoing touristification, including the definition of a social conflict index. Spatial content analysis using most-read local newspapers is presented as a method to locate where touristification issues spread and shows not only urban areas under tourism intensification, but also new ones in progress. In this regard, local newspapers provide qualitative information that can be quantified through GIS mapping. This geospatial information shows how the touristification phenomenon covered in the press spreads over the city: which areas are over-represented, how they relate to each other spatially, where the negative impacts of tourism happen and which new places are at risk of being touristified.

Spanish Ministry of Universities (FPU19/02468) and Junta de Andalucía – Consejería de Fomento, Infraestructuras y Ordenación del Territorio, Servicio General de Vivienda (UMA.20.01).