soziale stadt - bundestransferstelle
besonderem Entwicklungsbedarf - Soziale Stadt"
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5.8 Image improvement and public relations
The image improvement and public relations field is primarily concerned with dispersing prejudices and closing information gaps while building communications networks, systematically reporting and providing urban development participation ideas, deciphering realistic development prospects for urban districts and creating neighbourhood identification opportunities (1). Concrete onsite action clarifies the consequences of negative images and networking deficits better than the goals and problems covered by the survey (2). Image improvement and public relations play a role in the individual measures and projects in three quarters of the programme districts. These fields rank second in programme district response frequency. Image improvement and public relations are interdisciplinary tasks that often coincide with district culture measures and projects.
Problems and opportunities for image improvement and public relations
The negative image of most of the programme districts - particularly as viewed by outsiders - proves to be a barometer for the internal climate and mood. In some cases, biased negative reporting by newspapers, radio and television is a contributing factor. Press coverage influences public opinion as well as reflecting it. The media has concentrated too much on problems and "daily catastrophes". This slant was particularly pessimistic at the beginning of programme implementation. Urban districts with special development needs were stigmatized and seen as little more than centres of depression. Their portrayal as zones of poverty, neglect, conflict and aggression breeds hopelessness, thwarts active participation and damages residents' self-esteem. As programme implementation proceeds, it often elicits more constructive coverage featuring development plans, promising approaches and ongoing projects. Examples are the model districts of Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck/Schalke-Nord and Sachsendorf-Madlow.
Information gaps in Socially Integrative City districts are widely cited. Complaints are most frequently voiced during events and in field reports from the onsite programme support teams. Emphasis is placed on residents' ignorance of existing initiatives, of interested and involved individuals and of facilities and programme features (3). These shortcomings should come as no surprise since the average district is 12 times larger than traditional urban renewal zones. The average population is 8400.
The problems normally suggest image improvement and public relations opportunities. Eliminating the discrepancy between multifaceted internal images and often biased external images seems to be a good place to start. Initiatives and activities that may not be widely known in the neighbourhoods prior to programme launch can use this as an opportunity for publicity, expansion and networking.
Imagemaking and public relations strategies
The understanding that public relations work is mainly an "instrument of activation and participation" is gradually sinking in (4). Interactive and dialogue-oriented publicity is gaining ground in the programme districts. The palette of existing measures to reinforce a positive neighbourhood image is colourful. Figure 65 provides an initial impression of the numerous existing public relations approaches, although category borders are not always clearly marked.
Experiences in model districts indicate that neighbourhood management teams, clubs, initiatives, housing associations, project sponsors and government press offices do the lion's share of the public relations work. Local businesses may also become involved, particularly with imagebuilding and marketing strategies in specific districts (Bremen, Gelsenkirchen, Kassel). In general, measures and projects in the area of image improvement and public relations seem to focus on the following three typical strategies: fostering district community cohesion, information and participation drives to boost programme implementation (usually a "domestic" strategy oriented mainly towards intradistrict awareness); and the fostering or promoting of positive media coverage (the "foreign policy" component).
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Figure 65: Elements of Public Relations. Second survey (Difu 2002) |
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German Institute of Urban AffairsEstablishing district offices as information and contact points (5), organizing district festivals (in nearly 80% of all programme districts), conducting group walking tours (6) (61%), holding exhibitions (7) (52%) and lectures and publishing district newspapers (8) all play major roles in improving community cohesion . More than half of the programme districts have their own newspapers. They are a reporting and publicity tool and relate to the daily lives of residents, speaking to them in their vernacular. If the population and local players publish their own contributions as "stringers" (9)or if they take editing the paper into their own hands, these media become a vehicle for first-person accounts. The Hamburg-Lurup district paper Lurup im Blick (10) is considered a key project by the onsite programme support team because it improves the district's image and economy by providing information and advertisements. Other journalistic endeavours include specially issued "signposts", guides, brochures and thematic agendas, district maps with indexes of clubs, meeting places, local services, etc. These media provide information that supports district opinion shaping. 40% of all programme districts already have websites.
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Practical example |
Figure 66 |
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Südstadt kids in Nuremberg–Galgenhof/Steinbühl The participants in "Südstadt kids", a project in a Nuremburg lower secondary school, do interviews, reports, editorials and features for Radio Südpol e.V. in cooperation with Radio Z. The students learn skills such as word processing, how to operate digital recording devices and sound systems, and the tools of the journalism trade (programme conception, research and creation of suspense). Teachers and radio pros provide expertise. Südstadt kids want to go beyond acquiring and practising journalistic skills and primarily aim to report on what is happening in their surroundings in Nuremberg-Südstadt. They have prepared programmes on neighbourhood facilities and Jewish eyewitness accounts of the events of World War II. |
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Inclusion in Socially Integrative City is accompanied in many cases by the provision of implementation-related information and participation strategies (11). These include briefings on programme planning and implementation status. In the model districts these were mainly topical and kickoff meetings and planning workshops, district forums and conferences and new round tables (12).
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Practical example |
Figure 67/68 |
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Logo und Slogan Contest in Leipzig East In summer 2001 a contest challenged locals to invent logos and slogans to be used free of charge by all locally based and locally operating players, as a means of identity building in the model district. After residents and the Image and Public Relations task force had established a shortlist of the best ideas (above), a meeting in November 2001 of the Leipzig East Forum selected the best logo and slogan and awarded prizes. The winning logo with the words "Leipziger OSTEN (photo above left, top left corner) will be used for all activities, events and new construction projects. It is hoped that it will become synonymous with all the small success stories in Leipzig East. |
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District newspapers, information leaflets, flyers and other local publications are boons for publicity improvement in the district, but the next step is actively bolstering and cultivating committed, objective reporting in local and interregional media - newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet. The overall goal is to project a positive image in the media (13). However, this cannot be reached by resorting to gimmicks and jingles which transcend all bounds of reality, as is often the case in professional PR portfolios. Instead, participants share a consensus that all efforts to foster a favourable image may only legitimately mirror actual improvements. Approaches and projects should be placed in the limelight, although that does not mean that they should escape critical reflection. So far only one quarter of the programme districts has benefited from a special image drive. Promotions such as poster campaigns, district festivals with a special motto and radio and television commercials help to give neighbourhoods a distinct profile. Pre-feature cinema screenings of video films proclaiming "Gröpelingen - more than it's cracked up to be" are an example. Leipzig East's 2001 logo and slogan contest has even been designated as a key project (14).
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Table 13: |
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Greatly deteriorated |
Deteriorated |
No change |
Improved |
Greatly improved |
No opinion |
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Number |
% |
Number |
% |
Number |
% |
Number |
% |
Number |
% |
Number |
% |
|
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Outsiders' view of district (n = 205) |
1 |
0.5 |
10 |
4.9 |
93 |
45.4 |
69 |
33.7 |
18 |
8.8 |
14 |
6.8 |
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Insiders' self-view of district (n = 204 ) |
- |
- |
4 |
2.0 |
45 |
22.1 |
121 |
59.3 |
22 |
10.8 |
12 |
5.9 |
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Identification with district (n = 203) |
- |
- |
4 |
2.0 |
49 |
24.1 |
110 |
54.2 |
24 |
11.8 |
16 |
7.9 |
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Press coverage ( n = 204 ) |
- |
- |
7 |
3.4 |
35 |
17.2 |
113 |
55.4 |
38 |
18.6 |
11 |
5.4 |
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German Institute of Urban Affairs |
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Municipal spokespersons and Socially Integrative City partners have so far generally awarded public relations efforts good grades for achievement. Two thirds of the programme districts note improvement in insiders' image, neighbourhood identity and press coverage. As far as outsiders' perception of the district is concerned, responses are more reserved and sceptical. "No change" was observed by a plurality of 45% of respondents. In 42% of programme districts the experts maintained that the external image had improved.
(1) Cf. Heidede Becker, Das Bund-Länder-Programm "Soziale Stadt". Raumbezüge und Handlungsfelder, Die alte Stadt, No. 2 (2000), p. 148 f. 
(2) Only 15% of the programme districts cite "improvement of the area's image" as a programme implementation goal. However, one must bear in mind that the vast majority of the districts (those covered in the 1999 and 200 programme calendars) answered this question in the first survey, conducted very shortly after the programme launch.
(3) For example, during the May 2002 interim appraisal congress panel discussion on diversity and the future in a socially integrative city, Klaus Selle stated, "Some people don't know that there is somebody in the athletic club who feels responsible for the district's young people. Other people don't know that the school principal next door is testing an autonomous school as part of a federal- Land model project and is seeking district participation. And these two committed individuals are not aware of each other and nobody is systematically making the necessary connections.” ((printed in: Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik (Ed.), Kongress, p. 88)
(4) Austermann, Ruiz, Sautter, p. 73
(5) Cf. the following projects in the programme database: district office and meeting point in Emden-Barenburg, Flensburg-Neustadt district office, URBAN Office in Kiel, District Management in Kiel-Gaarden.
(6) Cf. the programme database for the project "City of Your Dreams", urban exploration with a camera in Düsseldorf – Flingern-Oberbilk.
(7) Cf. programme database: quot;Things Have Changed - People and Opinions in Ingolstadt's Pius Quarter" (photographic exhibit of residents).
(8) Cf. programme database projects: Lurup im Blick, information and ideas for Hamburg–Altona–Lurup, district newspaper VorOrt in Ahlen - Süd-Ost (online newspaper project leading to qualifications), Soziale Stadt. District magazine in Leipzig East..
(9) Beer/Musch, "Stadtteile ...", p. 139.
(10) Ingrid Breckner and Heike Herrmann , Hamburg-Altona–Lurup, Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik, Die soziale Stadt (Begleitbuch), p. 145.
(11) Cf. project database projects such as: citizen expertise on upgrading Gotteshauer Platz in Karlsruhe-Oststadt/West, citizen participation in Ingolstadt Pius Quarter (futurology workshop, urban working groups and target group workshops), environmental initiative in Dortmund-Scharnhorst-Ost (a project to improve housing and living environment quality).
(12) Cf. more in Chapter 8 Activation and Participation.
(13) Cf. following project database entries: a new image for Fischbacherberg (district upgrade in Siegen-Fischbacherberg), StadtTEILmarketing für Kiel-Gaarden, contest to give a new name to the northern part of Langen (Langen Nordend), media workshop/coordinated press relations to improve the image of Singen-Langenrain.
(14) This was intended to involve the population in coming up with a catchy district logo. The nod went to the slogan "The sun rises in the East". Coupled with a matching logo, this theme can be used by all players free of charge to contribute to shaping an identity in the model district, cf. Christa Böhme and Thomas Franke, Leipzig – Leipziger Osten , Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik (Ed.), Die Soziale Stadt (Begleitbuch), p. 205.
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Translated from: Soziale Stadt - Strategien für die Soziale Stadt, Erfahrungen und Perspektiven – Umsetzung des Bund-Länder-Programms „Stadtteile mit besonderem Entwicklungsbedarf – die soziale Stadt", Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik 2003 |
Im Auftrag des BMVBS vertreten durch das BBR. Zuletzt geändert am 03.08.2005