Next week we will be holding a mock-trial based on the readings on the public sphere.
The charge is:
THE INTERNET DOES NOT CREATE A PUBLIC SPHERE
1. In the comments section please add links to articles/blogs/social networks/anything that you think demonstrates either that:
a. the internet DOES create a public sphere
or
b. the internet DOES not create a public sphere
2. make sure you leave a one-sentence/word comment saying whether you think your example is positive or negative
I'll leave a sample comment showing you what I mean
Please come to next week's session prepared to discuss!
I think that the Occupy Wall Street tumblr demonstrates that the internet can be a public sphere:
ReplyDeletehttp://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
"Trolling" is problematic for the idea that discussion online will hold to the rational standards required in Habermas's public sphere: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trolling
ReplyDeleteThese are the top re-tweets from 2010:
ReplyDeletehttp://yearinreview.twitter.com/retweets/
With a few notable exceptions, these don't exactly prove that people are using the internet to solve or respond to complex social questions or political problems. The most popular 'issues' that people re-tweeted involve celebrities... a lot about Justin Beiber.
This is a vote in favor of the power of twitter to arrive at outcomes for the general good and for its power to add information in quantity that also has quality. Twitter becomes a source for public-driven journalism, rather than what might be commodity or private-interest journalism:
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2011/10/15/reporting-the-riots-paul-lewis-at-polis-lse/
I think most of us went to this Polis talk by Paul Lewis. He focused on using twitter to report the riots and brought up a lot of interesting ideas, for example:
An astonishing 2.5 million tweets were recorded during the events and make up what Lewis refers to as an “encyclopedic resource of the riots”. Nowadays non-professional users are leaving digital footprints of breaking news stories from around the world. “It lends itself to collective reporting, to people who want to help”, he said, describing a shift from “old-school reporting” towards a conversation with audiences who are no longer just consumers but active participants.
(from LSE Polis website listed above)
Out of the blue, I would agree with saying that the Internet might help with creating a public sphere - but: your access to this is still highly dependent on where in the world you live, whether it is for example one of the advanced democracies in Europe, the PRC with a highly censored internet or whether it might be an African country where you don´t have access due to the simple fact that there is no internet coverage at all (see: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm).
ReplyDeleteThis shows that although the internet is a powerful tool to connect people and to participate in some sort of a debate, it is still not creating a Public Sphere with equal access for all participants (Habermas definition).
And of course, I would agree with Jackie in saying that if we take a closer look on what people are actually doing on the internet, entertainment is the leading genre when it comes for example to clicks at my former employer´s newsite www.welt.de and also our appearance in Social Networks such as Facebook. Thus, I would argue that although the Internet offers a lot of tools for engagement and chance, many people do not make use of that.
ReplyDelete