The Contentious Public Sphere

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Wen Lei
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Critique ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Legal Subjects

Since the mid-2000s, public opinion and debate in China have become increasingly common and consequential, despite the ongoing censorship of speech and regulation of civil society. How did this happen? This book shows how the Chinese state drew on law, the media, and the Internet to further an authoritarian project of modernization, but in so doing, inadvertently created a nationwide public sphere in China—one the state must now endeavor to control. The book examines the influence this unruly sphere has had on Chinese politics and the ways that the state has responded. It shows that the development of the public sphere in China has provided an unprecedented forum for citizens to influence the public agenda, demand accountability from the government, and organize around the concepts of law and rights. It demonstrates how citizens came to understand themselves as legal subjects, how legal and media professionals began to collaborate in unexpected ways, and how existing conditions of political and economic fragmentation created unintended opportunities for political critique, particularly with the rise of the Internet. The emergence of this public sphere—and its uncertain future—is a pressing issue with important implications for the political prospects of the Chinese people. The book offers new possibilities for thinking about the transformation of state–society relations.

The Necropolitics of Documents and the Slow Death of Prisoners in Turkey

2019 ◽  
pp. 97-117
Author(s):  
Başak Can
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
State Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Penal Institutions ◽  
Multiple State ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

The government used medico-legal documentation of prisoners’ health condition to solve the biopolitical crisis in penal institutions immediately after the end of death fast (2000-2007) and released hundreds of hunger strikers, who suffered from incurable conditions. That the state turned a political crisis into a medical one using the illness clause had unprecedented consequences for how claims are made in the political sphere. Human rights activists, Kurdish and leftist politicians are now using the plight of ill prisoners to make political arguments in the public sphere. The health conditions of political prisoners, specifically the use of the illness clause has thus emerged as one of the most contentious fields in the encounters between the state and its opponents. This chapter examines how temporality works as an instrument of necropolitics through the slow production and circulation of the medico-legal bureaucratic documents that are produced through encounters with multiple state officials. I argue, first, that medico-legal processes surrounding the detainees are mediated through the discretionary sovereign acts of multiple state officials, including but not limited to physicians, and second, that legal medicine as a technology of state violence is central to understanding the intertwined histories of sovereignty and biopolitics in Turkey.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
The Public ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Impact

This epilogue comments on the changes within the Polish American community and the Polish-language press during the most recent decades, including the impact of the Internet and social media on the practice of letter-writing. It also poses questions about the legacy and memory of Paryski in Toledo, Ohio, and in Polonia scholarship. Paryski's life and career were based on his intelligence, determination, and energy. He believed that Poles in the United States, as in Poland, must benefit from education, and that education was not necessarily the same as formal schooling. Anybody could embark on the path to self-improvement if they read and wrote. Long before the Internet changed the way we communicate, Paryski and other ethnic editors effectively adopted and practiced the concept of debate within the public sphere in the media. Ameryka-Echo's “Corner for Everybody” was an embodiment of this concept and allowed all to express themselves in their own language and to write what was on their minds.

The Digital Citizen

2008 ◽  
pp. 108-115
Author(s):  
Zizi Papacharissi
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

The objective of this article is to sketch out the profile of the digital citizen. The premise for this article rests upon utopian views that embrace new media technologies as democratizers of postindustrial society (e.g., Bell, 1981; Johnson & Kaye, 1998; Kling, 1996; Negroponte, 1998; Rheingold, 1993) and cautionary criticism that questions the substantial impact new media could have on reviving a dormant public sphere (e.g., Bimber & Davis, 2003; Davis, 1999; Hill & Hughes, 1998; Jankowski & van Selm, 2000; Jones, 1997; Margolis & Resnick, 2000; Scheufele & Nisbet, 2002). Concurrently, declining participation in traditional forms of political involvement and growing public cynicism (e.g., Cappella & Jamieson, 1996, 1997; Fallows, 1996; Patterson, 1993, 1996) position the Internet and related technologies as vehicles through which political activity can be reinvented. Still, conflicting narratives on civic involvement, as articulated by the government, politicians, the media, and the public, create confusion about the place and role of the citizen in a digital age. The digital citizen profile, therefore, is defined by historical and cultural context, divided between expectation and skepticism regarding new media, and presents hope of resurrecting the public sphere and awakening a latent, postmodern political consciousness. This article outlines these conditions, reviews perceptions of the digital citizen, and proposes a digital citizen role model for the future.

Performing Artivism: Feminists, Lawyers, and Online Legal Mobilization in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 678-705
Author(s):  
Di Wang ◽  
Sida Liu
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Mobilization ◽  
The Public ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
Performance Arts ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

In authoritarian contexts where the state is the primary performer in the public sphere and legal mobilization is constrained and repressed, activists often seek to carve out a public space to confront the frontstage and backstage of the state’s performance in order to pursue collective action. Comparing the online legal mobilization of feminist and lawyer activists in China, this article investigates how performance arts are used by activists to challenge the authoritarian state in the age of social media. Performing “artivism” is to create conspicuous spectacles in the public eye for the purposes of exposing the state’s illegal or repressive backstage actions or promoting alternative values and norms different from the official ideology. By subversively disrupting the evidential boundaries set by the state, Chinese activists have been able to gain momentum and public support for their legal mobilization. However, it was precisely the success of their artivism that contributed to the government crackdowns on both feminists and lawyers in 2015.

scholarly journals Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs ◽  
Klaus Unterberger
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Service ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Dominant Form ◽  
The Public ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Public Sphere

This chapter introduces the book’s context. It describes the process that led to the creation of the Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto. The basic starting point was the insight that the survival of public service media is in danger, that the dominant form of the Internet and Internet platforms undermines the democratic public sphere, and that we need new forms of the Internet and the media in order to safeguard and renew democracy and the public sphere.

The Digital Citizen

2011 ◽  
pp. 315-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Papacharissi
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

The objective of this article is to sketch out the profile of the digital citizen. The premise for this article rests upon utopian views that embrace new media technologies as democratizers of postindustrial society (e.g., Bell, 1981; Johnson & Kaye, 1998; Kling, 1996; Negroponte, 1998; Rheingold, 1993) and cautionary criticism that questions the substantial impact new media could have on reviving a dormant public sphere (e.g., Bimber & Davis, 2003; Davis, 1999; Hill & Hughes, 1998; Jankowski & van Selm, 2000; Jones, 1997; Margolis & Resnick, 2000; Scheufele & Nisbet, 2002). Concurrently, declining participation in traditional forms of political involvement and growing public cynicism (e.g., Cappella & Jamieson, 1996, 1997; Fallows, 1996; Patterson, 1993, 1996) position the Internet and related technologies as vehicles through which political activity can be reinvented. Still, conflicting narratives on civic involvement, as articulated by the government, politicians, the media, and the public, create confusion about the place and role of the citizen in a digital age. The digital citizen profile, therefore, is defined by historical and cultural context, divided between expectation and skepticism regarding new media, and presents hope of resurrecting the public sphere and awakening a latent, postmodern political consciousness. This article outlines these conditions, reviews perceptions of the digital citizen, and proposes a digital citizen role model for the future.

scholarly journals Disobedience of Judges as a Problem of Legal Philosophy and Comparative Constitutionalism: A Polish Case

Res Publica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateusz Pilich
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Difficult Problem ◽  
The State ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractThe article takes up the difficult problem of the so-called disobedience of judges against the background of the experiences of the Polish departure from constitutional democracy in 2015–2020. The special role and responsibility of a judge in the state imposes restrictions on her freedom of opinion in the public sphere. Openly manifesting opposition to government policy, which in the case of an ordinary citizen is only the implementation of human rights and freedoms, may be described as controversial and contrary to applicable ethical regulations. The main thesis of this paper is the assertion that although judges who act as impartial arbitrators in disputes should generally refrain from ostentatiously opposing the actions of political authorities, they are not deprived of the possibility of protest. Also in the exercise of office, and not outside the sphere of their duties, judges should take into account overriding moral values that should be implemented by the legal order, and not the values or declarations guiding the government policies. The integrity of the judge, which prescribes restraint in statements and actions in the public sphere, as well as the care for the dignity of the office held, should not be confused with absolute subordination to the legislature or the executive, even if the judge is obliged to apply the law. The traditional attitude of the members of the judiciary, consisting in focusing only on the application of the law in individual cases and the lack of any political involvement, is being reviewed in the face of the spread of majoritarianism and the law abuse as normal techniques of exercising public authority. The disobedience of judges—although difficult to defend at first sight—may seem to be the only possible way to draw public attention to the corruption of the state system. The ‘disobediant’ judges can even be assigned the role of ‘whistleblowers’, which should help to ease their legal liability or their future rehabilitation.

The Indian Public Sphere: Histories, Contradictions and Challenges

2014 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-175
Author(s):  
Ramaswami Harindranath
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
The Public ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
The Media ◽  
Partha Chatterjee ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Media Discourses

This article traces the complexities inherent in the formation of the public sphere in India and how this can be seen as impinging on specific kinds of media discourses. After highlighting a few of the apparent contradictions in the Indian public sphere, the article builds on the insights offered by Partha Chatterjee, Kuan-Hsing Chen and Walter Mignolo to argue the case for the need to reconceptualise the concept of the public sphere in order to make it more suitable for the Indian context. Using media reports on terrorism and terrorist activities in India and the diverse conceptualisations of terrorism that underpin them as examples, this article demonstrates the exercise of symbolic power by the state and the media, and how this is indicative of the contradictions intrinsic to the public sphere in India.

Theoretical Perspectives in the Study of Communication and the Internet

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Rice ◽  
Ryan Fuller
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Public ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Relational Management ◽  
Second Period

This chapter exposes the prominence of different theoretical perspectives on the Internet. A broad scope of primary and secondary theories has been increasingly used to understand the social and communicative aspects of the Internet and the increasingly specialized areas being developed by Internet researchers, such as around social media. The chapters published in the first half of the period (2000–04) are compared to those in the second period of the sample (2005–09). It is observed that the media attributes, the public sphere, and community have been the most popular theory themes. There are also opportunities for further theoretical development in the areas of credibility/trust, participatory media/users, relational management, and cultural differences.

The Challenges of Hosting Televised Deliberations in Ethiopian Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110202
Author(s):  
Gebru K. Kiflu ◽  
Adem C. Ali ◽  
Hagos Nigussie
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Addis Ababa ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Commercial Television ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

This paper explores the factors constraining public service and commercial television channels in constituting the public sphere in Ethiopia. It focuses on three television stations and their respective programs, such as the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation's Ethiopian television (ETV)'s Medrek, Fana Broadcasting Corporation's Zuria Meles, and LTV's Sefiw Mehidar. The data was collected starting from 2019 to 2020 in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, where the three TV stations are located. These programs were designed to entertain different views, including ideologies, policies, and strategies to be deliberated and critiqued. They have created opportunities for debate and discussion as the Ethiopian media did not have new program formats for public deliberation-related shows previously. However, results showed that these platforms remained ineffective to entertain a diversity of views. One of the major challenges for this is that the production process encounters multiple obstructions from the media, the guests, and the government authorities. Guests fear to deliberate their views openly and prefer to remain abstinent. Also, the hosts lacked the courage, professionalism, and basic knowledge about the topics for discussion. Government authorities do not want the programs to be critical and deliberative. Equally, failures to achieve an inclusive public sphere are the outcomes of the unstable political landscape in the country. Therefore, due to different factors, including a highly controlled media landscape in Ethiopia, creating platforms for public debate seems unattainable.

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