scholarly journals The Articulation of Public Problems within a Communicative Figuration Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Mălina Ciocea ◽  
Alexandru Cârlan ◽  
Bianca Cheregi
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Processes ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article proposes an analytical shift in the theorization of public problems, from the standard (institutional) constructionist view which has informed the tradition of conceptualising social problems since Spector and Kitsuse’s classic work, to a communicative constructionist view, stemming from the mediatization paradigm. The rationale behind this shift is based on the conceptualization of the relation between various types of actors as claim makers and the logic of visibility governing processes of publicization in a media ecology marked by accelerated development. If, in the new communicational landscape, claim-making activities can turn any new-media user into a potential constructor of public problems, then we need to explain how developments in media technology reconfigure the practices of claim-making. In our understanding, such reconfigurations are just a particular case of the socio-cultural processes of transformation which are the focus of the mediatization paradigm. On the other hand, in a Foucaultian tradition, a shift from problems to problematizations is required in order to account for the processual dynamic through which certain phenomena are analysed under specific circumstances and at certain times, while others are ignored. This shift leads to an understanding of communicative figurations as a meta-theoretical framework for the construction of public problems, accounting for the interdependencies between articulations of public problems and the dynamics of the public sphere. With this aim in view, we first identity and evaluate the theoretical directions that are symptomatic for the transition from social problems to public ones and from problems to problematizations. In the second part, we present the heuristic potential of the concept of communicative figurations for our topic and articulate some methodological implications for a research agenda.

scholarly journals Starving at the Laid Table? Journalism, Digitalization and Corporate Capitalism

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Schnell
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Public ◽  
Professional Authority ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The World ◽  
Market Driven ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Severe Shortage

Professional journalism fulfills an important role in modern democracies, while always standing with one leg in the public sphere and the other in the private media economy. Within the era of digitalization, the limits of a market-driven professionalism become apparent. Since information appears to be easily accessible due to new media, journalism lost its role as a gatekeeper for “what the world needs to know”. But dropping an anachronistic idea of professional authority—as reform projects within the journalistic profession demanded for decades—does not necessarily lead to a more open and participatory public sphere. On the contrary, the chance for reliable news seems to shrink in the everyday flood of information. Facing a severe shortage of professionalism against the background of an oversupply in the field of journalism might indicate a general paradox of contemporary societies.  

Memetic protest and the dramatic diffusion of Alan Kurdi

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 656-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Olesen
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Way

In September 2015, the photographs of a dead boy, Alan Kurdi, washed up on a beach near the Turkish city of Bodrum, inspired countless reactions of indignation and protest. To understand the protest dynamic that emerged around these photographs, this article discusses three sets of explanatory observations: (a) that the Kurdi photographs had important aesthetic and inter-iconic qualities, (b) that the central ‘Kurdi on the beach’ photographs were juxtaposed with a range of ‘Kurdi alive’ photographs brought into the public sphere by intimate injustice interpreters and commentators (i.e. Kurdi’s aunt and father), and (c) that they displayed an interpretive openness that allowed for ideological and geographical diversity in political meaning work. In seeking to offer an explanation of the dramatic diffusion of Kurdi, the article also illuminates some new powerful trends in activism around injustice photographs. While the global and protest-driven diffusion of injustice photographs is not historically novel, the new media ecology of Web 2.0 is profoundly transforming the way photographs are politicized. This transformation involves unprecedented opportunities for individualized, creative, and memetic protest.

Publics and Participation: England, Britain, and Europe in the “Post-Reformation”

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 836-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lake
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Other ◽  
British History ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractThis article responds to the pieces collected in this special issue of the Journal of British Studies, all of which seek to take some notion of the politics of the public sphere and either apply it to, or break it upon the wheel of, various versions of British history during the post-Reformation period. It seeks to bring the other articles into conversation both with one another as well as with existing work on the topic.

scholarly journals AUTORITA’ AND AUTOREVOLEZZA: EXPLAINING CONTESTATIONS BETWEEN POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS IN THE AGE OF THE NEW MEDIA

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-38
Author(s):  
Walter C. Ihejirika
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Connection ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

In many African countries, since the nineties, there is a subtle contest going on between religious and political leaders. At the heart of this contest is what Rosalind Hackett described as the redefinition of the categories of power and status, which cease to be primarily tied to material wealth or political connection, but rather to spiritual authority and revelation. This is a struggle for the hegemonic control of the society in the Gramscian sense of the term. While political leaders may use the coercive arms of the state – military might as well as their control of the financial resources of the state to impose their authority, religious leaders on the other hand assume the posture of moral icons, personalities endowed with superior knowledge based on divine revelation. As these contestations are played out in the public sphere, the way the leaders are able to portray themselves to their public will determine their followership. This explains the importance of mediation in the process of politico-religious contestations. In the eyes of the public, political leaders have the physical or raw power - the Italian concept of autorita; while the religious leaders have the moral power - autorevolezza. This paper uses these concepts as metaphors to present a general explanation of how the contestation between religious and political leaders plays out in the public sphere of the new media

scholarly journals Rethinking science communication in a changing landscape

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. E
Author(s):  
Frank Kupper ◽  
Carolina Moreno-Castro ◽  
Alessandra Fornetti
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Selection Of

Science communication continues to grow, develop and change, as a practice and field of research. The boundaries between science and the rest of society are blurring. Digitalization transforms the public sphere. This JCOM special issue aims to rethink science communication in light of the changing science communication landscape. How to characterize the emerging science communication ecosystem in relation to the introduction of new media and actors involved? What new practices are emerging? How is the quality of science communication maintained or improved? We present a selection of papers that provide different perspectives on these questions and challenges.

The Invisible Other

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Vetter
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Other ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Existential Psychology ◽  
World War ◽  
Freudian Psychoanalysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Other Woman

Chapter 8 turns to the figure of the spy, a recurrent trope of her 1956 novel Magic Mirror and the accompanying memoir Compassionate Friendship. If the “other woman” is predicated on a position of alterity, the therapist-spy feigns an identification—and an empathetic connection—that does not in fact exist. At the level of the private sphere, H.D. uses espionage as a mode of critiquing Freudian psychoanalysis, offering in its stead the short-lived existential psychology, a movement which grew out of the trauma of World War II and emphasized an empathetic rather than transferential model of therapy. Shifting outward to the public sphere, her analysis of the figure of the spy becomes an examination of the politics of nationalism.

Issues of Digital Disempowerment and New Media Networking (NMN) in Relation to E-Government

2011 ◽  
pp. 92-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth L. Hacker ◽  
Eric L. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Dialogue ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Digital Democracy ◽  
Emerging Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

Emerging media technologies are increasingly reconfiguring the public sphere by creating new spaces for political dialogue. E-democracy (digital democracy) and e-government can be usefully served by these emerging technologies; however, their existence does not automatically equate to increased political participation. There is still a need to develop specific and theoretically-oriented approaches to a newly reconfigured public sphere. Employing a structurational perspective, this essay addresses the relationship between political participation, emerging media, new media networking, and e-democracy. While new media networking increases the potential for political participation, depending on various factors such as access, usage and skills, the potential exists for increasing disempowerment as well. The chapter concludes with recommendations for the use of new media networking in ways that enhance e-democracy.

Hall of Mirrors: Media, Democratization, and the Public Sphere in Maranhão, Brazil

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julián Durazo Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Strong Interference ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere

Freedom of expression and access to diverse sources of information are seen as critical elements of democracy, although their concretization on the ground is subject to strong interference. Recent regime change in Maranhão, one of Brazil’s poorest states, has led to the emergence of new media and some expansion of the public sphere. The traditional oligarchy continues to dominate the media, however, and the opposition media replicate its exclusion of nonelite actors. The Maranhão experience confirms that normative approaches to the media either as automatic contributors to democracy or as instruments of elite manipulation have little value for understanding media dynamics. Liberdade de expressão, bem como o acesso a diversas fontes de informação, são considerados elementos críticos da democracia, ainda que a concretização desses fatores esteja sujeita a forte interferência. A recente troca de regime no Maranhão, um dos estados mais pobres do Brasil, tem levado ao surgimento de uma nova mídia e a uma certa expansão da esfera pública. Contudo, a oligarquia continua dominando a mídia tradicional e a mídia alternativa imita a prática de exclusão de atores não pertencentes à elite. A experiência do Maranhão confirma que tratamentos normativos que veem a mídia como contribuinte automática do processo democrático, ou como instrumento de manipulação da elite, teem pouco valor para se entender a dinâmica da mídia.

The Rise of the Other Backward Classes in the Hindi Belt

2000 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Jaffrelot
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social System ◽  
Indian Population ◽  
The Other ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Arrangement ◽  
Field Workers ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
First Time

The rise of the other backward classes (OBCs) is certainly one of the main developments in the Hindi-belt politics over the last ten years. The OBCs are castes in the Indian social system that are situated above the Untouchables but below the forward castes (the “twice born,” Brahmins, Kshatriyas [warriors] and Vaishyas [merchants]) and the intermediate castes (mostly peasant proprietors and even dominant castes). They form the bulk of the Shudras—the fourth category (varna) of the classical Hindu social arrangement. The OBCs, whose professional activity is often as field-workers or artisans, represent about half of the Indian population, but they have occupied a subaltern position so far. Their rise for the first time seriously questions upper-caste domination of the public sphere.

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