Selling Southern Places: An Examination of Delta’s Sky Magazine City Profiles.
2019; University of North Carolina Press; Volume: 59; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/sgo.2019.0022
ISSN1549-6929
Autores Tópico(s)Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior
ResumoDelta’s Sky magazine claims to be an influential outlet for entities trying to promote places to investors and tourists. Claiming nearly 6 million readers monthly, the magazine’s profiles of cities, states and regions have the potential to reach the niche audiences that shape the spatial practices of firms and influence individual decisions on tourism expenditures. This paper explores how Sky promotes places in the text of these profiles through the dual use of digital humanities tools and close reading-based interpretation to address the following questions. First, we ask how is the South represented in the Sky profiles? Second, what themes are present in the profile texts, given that all places seek to address both unique elements while addressing common themes of importance to business? We find that place promotion practitioners use very similar themes that have been identified in the literature since the 1980s, primarily accessibility. Efforts to attract the creative class are also present in the Sky profiles. The South poses unique challenges to place marketers, and our findings show a convergence in how profiles tackle the concept of southern culture and identity as it is leveraged in many of the profiles.
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