‘A great [Nordic] city is full of stories!’ Persuasive techniques in urban development videos

ABSTRACT

Literature on planning as storytelling says little about the techniques of this persuasive practice. An analysis of six urban development videos in three Nordic cities clarifies how futures are envisioned and audiences seduced in the visual digital era. Variables related to space, time, and power demonstrate how meaning is created, the positive is accentuated, and hierarchies are established between places and groups of people. The discussion adds overlooked but useful literature and critical viewpoints to the discussion on planning as storytelling in the visual age. The results show why new, innovative responses are needed for Throgmorton’s 2003 call for the spatialization of storytelling in planning discourse. The results help in improving planners’ and citizen-scholars’ media literacy skills and in considering possible consequences of persuasive storytelling.

KEYWORDS:

• Methods
• persuasion
• storytelling
• urban development
• visual analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Citation from the video Aalborg.

2 Citation from the video Aalborg.

3 Citation from the video Gothenburg I.

4 Citation from the video Gothenburg II.

5 Citation from the video Aalborg.

6 Citation from the video Aalborg.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Academy of Finland: [grant numbers 289691, 326609]; Koneen Säätiö: [grant number 201802906].