‘Now they’re going to find us on a map’: pre-suasive visioning, rhetoric and framing in the city-seeking discourses of the City of Moreton Bay

Harry Dugmore; Ian Weber; Margarietha J de Villiers Scheepers; Levi Durbidge; Anthony Grace

doi:10.1177/1329878X261441824

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‘Now they’re going to find us on a map’: pre-suasive visioning, rhetoric and framing in the city-seeking discourses of the City of Moreton Bay

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‘Now they’re going to find us on a map’: pre-suasive visioning, rhetoric and framing in the city-seeking discourses of the City of Moreton Bay

Harry Dugmore, Ian Weber, Margarietha J de Villiers Scheepers, Levi Durbidge and Anthony Grace

Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy, Vol.Advanced access

20-Apr-2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X261441824

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Abstract

local government

pre-suasive communication

framing

foreshadowing

rhetorical analysis

place-shaping

Local councils often struggle with how and when to insert novel urban planning ideas into local discourses and effect change from ‘above’. This article examines the pre-suasive communication strategies employed by the Moreton Bay Regional Council (MBRC) to realign the city's planning horizons and branding, and to convince stakeholders that the Moreton Bay Region (MBR) should become a city. Support for the proposed changes was initially uncertain and elusive. The application's ultimate success in the face of widespread scepticism warrants a closer examination of the MBRC's public communication strategies. This article uses theories of framing and rhetorical analysis to examine how MBRC crafted city-shaping narratives to mobilise stakeholder support across diverse audiences. We analyse two critical texts in this shaping process: the Local Government Reclassification Report submitted to the Local Government Change Commission, and the brief public-facing ‘discussion document’, Reimagining our Moreton Bay: A City of Amazing Places and Natural Spaces. We find that the Council deployed the notion of a ‘polycentric’ city as a ‘floating signifier’ early in the process, allowing stakeholders to refract and absorb meanings that mattered to them, thereby galvanising sufficient support to secure city status for Australia's third-largest Local Government Area (LGA). Results from this ‘pre-suasive’ communication process serve to complement future city and regional planning and participatory processes, contributing to broader scholarship on persuasive communication, framing and place-shaping.

Details

Title: ‘Now they’re going to find us on a map’: pre-suasive visioning, rhetoric and framing in the city-seeking discourses of the City of Moreton Bay
Authors: Harry Dugmore (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Ian Weber - University of the Sunshine Coast
Margarietha J de Villiers Scheepers - University of the Sunshine Coast
Levi Durbidge - University of the Sunshine Coast
Anthony Grace - University of the Sunshine Coast
Publication details: Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy, Vol.Advanced access
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
DOI: 10.1177/1329878X261441824
ISSN: 2200-467X
Copyright note: © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Organisation Unit: School of Business and Creative Industries; Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991223827202621
Output Type: Journal article

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