How to Understand a City's Characteristics

Sure, you can read the newspaper of the city in which you live in and know the events that happen. But you still feel like you are missing out on something, that you still don't understand what it is that makes your city a city, what makes it stand apart from the other cities. Read on to understand how to decipher this, all through your local newspapers!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Local Newspaper

How to Understand your City

1. There is a framework which has been developed and tested and proved invaluable in understanding the city. If you read the newspaper with each of these principles in mind, you will begin to see your city in a whole new light. They are called the 5 P's; Pains, Problems, People, Power, Potentials.

2. Pains refer to issues which people experience such as suicide, leprosy, HIV/AIDS, drug addictions, alcoholism, prostitution, crime, and homelessness. Other issues can fall under this-anything that causes stigmatization and pain to those affected by it, directly and indirectly.

3. Problems deal with more structural elements-such as corruption, traffic congestion, unemployment, slums, and water.

4. People means the ethnic, linguistic, religious, and economic groups that make up the city.

5. Powers refer to authority figures such as police, politicians, churches and temples. This group would include any authoritative figure or structure that wields power over a group of people.

6. Potentials includes within its group: hospitals, universities, schools, clinics, etc. This group, again, includes anything which has the potential to have either a positive or negative impact upon the city.

7. So how do you use these 5 P's when reading your city's local newspapers (it is better to read more than one, as each paper has their own slant in telling the stories). As you read an article, keep these P's in mind to understand the nature of your city.