Mapping the media frames that have both triggered and articulated the mobilisation around air pollution in London in the period 1997–2017, this paper shows how especially those events that have been framed in agonistic terms have led to a rise of media engagement with the topic. From the controversy around Sahara dust as a so-called ‘natural’ explanation for smog episodes, to the staging of Oxford Street as the most polluted street of the world, from Sadiq Khan's decision to join ClientEarth in its court case against the UK government to the debate on a new runway for Heathrow, from the Volkswagen scandal to the Black Lives Matter blockade of London City Airport: the discursive construction of us/them divides has been crucial in sparking passion, contestation and debate. Empirically, the paper starts from a detailed study of 1594 newspaper articles that appeared on air pollution in five British newspapers, The Guardian, Financial Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph and The Times, between January 1997 and March 2017. Theoretically, it combines Chantal Mouffe’s political theory with Anabela Carvalho’s media theory, in particular her diachronic model of circuits of culture. On this basis, the paper distinguishes five critical discourse periods and shows how a number of critical discourse moments, exactly because of their agonising dimension, have been able to spike media attention and shift the terms of the debate. Starting from this observation, the paper argues that media processes should not only be understood in cyclic terms, but can also trigger non-linear iterative dynamics, leading to upward spirals characterised by thresholds and a gradually increasing level of interest overall, in this case raising the profile of London’s poor air.

绘制出在1997年至2017年期间引发和阐明围绕伦敦空气污染问题动员的媒体框架的地图，本文显示，特别是那些以激动性的眼光策划的事件如何导致媒体对该主题的参与度上升。从围绕撒哈拉尘土的争​​议到对烟雾事件的所谓“自然”解释，到牛津街成为世界上污染最严重的街道，从萨迪克·汗（Sadiq Khan）决定加入ClientEarth的反英国政府诉讼案到关于希思罗机场新跑道的辩论，从大众汽车丑闻到伦敦城市机场的黑人生活问题封锁：我们/他们之间分歧的话语结构在激发热情，争辩和辩论中至关重要。根据经验，卫报，金融时报，独立报，每日电讯报和时报从1997年1月到2017年3月。从理论上讲，它结合了Chantal Mouffe的政治理论和Anabela Carvalho的媒体理论，尤其是她历时的文化循环模型。在此基础上，本文区分了五个关键的演讲时段，并展示了许多关键的演讲时刻，正是由于它们的痛苦程度，才能够引起媒体的关注并改变辩论的内容。从这一观察出发，本文认为，媒体过程不仅应以循环的方式理解，而且还可以触发非线性的迭代动态，从而导致以阈值为特征的整体上升趋势，并逐渐引起整体兴趣水平的提高，在这种情况下，伦敦恶劣的空气状况。