The role of news media in producing territorial stigma - Scoping Review Protocol

News media is credited in urban studies, geography and sociology as having a significant role in producing negative place reputations. While the influence of journalism on territorial stigma is widely acknowledged from multidisciplinary standpoints, it is rarely considered from communications and media perspectives, and precisely how the news contributes to the ‘blemish of place’ remains unclear. Through a systematic review of scholarly literature, this chapter fills a critical research gap by considering territorial stigma through a communications and media lens and presenting the common narratives, editorial tactics and practices found to be used by journalists and news media outlets in the representation of stigmatised places. A systematic search of media, humanities and social sciences, urban studies and geography databases was conducted in July 2025 using the EBSCO databases Academic Search Complete, Communication Abstracts, Humanities International Complete, and SocINDEX with Full Text. A search strategy was devised, with the aim of detecting scholarly articles focused on the role of news media in producing and perpetuating negative place reputations, stigma and stereotypes, directly aligned with Wacquant’s concept of territorial stigma.