Media coverage and territorial stigmatization: an analysis of crime news articles and crime statistics in Toronto

Research on territorial stigmatization has gained considerable traction in the past decade as urban inequalities accelerate under neoliberal urbanization. While the production of territorial stigmatization is complex and multifaceted, central to this process is the perception and representation of places by outsiders, particularly the media. Through an analysis of crime news articles and crime statistics in Toronto, this paper identifies media coverage as one pathway by which certain neighbourhoods can become known for criminal activity, a key discourse associated with place-based stigma. A systematic search of news articles from major newspapers between 2015 and 2019 was conducted, focusing on terms related to three types of violent crime; robbery, homicide, and assault. Analysis reveals a spatial significance to the coverage of the crimes, with the majority of identified neighbourhoods located in the peripheral North York area and Downtown Toronto. Rates of coverage in the media were then statistically examined in relation to actual crime rates, revealing that several neighbourhoods receive disproportionate coverage as sites of crime by the media, particularly in the district of North York. These findings point to a suburbanization of media-driven perceptions of crime in Toronto, and to the possibility of territorial destigmatization for gentrifying neighbourhoods. Overall, this work highlights the necessity of critiquing not only defamatory discourses in the media, but also the extent to which the media covers criminal activities, because level of coverage is itself likely to be an important determinant of territorial stigmatization.