In her article, Dr. Mennatullah Hendawy from the CAIS research program “Digital Democratic Innovations”, together with R. R. Riad and S. H. Elgredly, examines how media shape urban planning – not only through coverage of cities, but by actively constructing and amplifying urban futures. Their findings demonstrate the reciprocal relationship between media discourse and urban policy, showing how megaprojects are turned into symbols of progress. The study contributes to the broader debate on neoliberal urbanism and the politics of visualization, highlighting how processes of mediatization influence not only how we perceive cities, but also how we build them.
Abstract
Media covers cities in myriad ways. This study examines the mediatization of an urban megadevelopment project, analyzing Al-Ahram Egyptian national press coverage of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital City project. We used thematic analysis and discourse analysis to investigate the technical media advertising of the project through a sample of 111 news headlines from 2015 (the project launch year) to 2019. The analysis revealed key shifts in planning news over time, reflecting the ways in which urban politics virtually, visually and discursively reinforce physical, exclusive urban growth. Media coverage tended to emphasize visual enticement, design spectacles and short-term financial returns while affordability and accessibility for the urban majority received comparatively less attention. More broadly, this study indicates how media not only communicates and visualizes urban futures but also has the potential to recreate them, as neoliberal urban policies advance through a mutually reinforcing relationship between media and the urban planning processes.
Hendawy, M., Riad, R.R. & Elgredly, S.H. The mediatization of urban development and Egypt’s New Administrative Capital. Nat Cities (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00250-w