scholarly journals Exposing the covert right in a news world without political memory

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-204
Author(s):  
Wayne Hope
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
National Party ◽  
Public Relations Practitioners ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Political Journalism ◽  
The Public Sphere

The arrival of this book last November (2006) was a landmark event for political journalism in New Zealand. There had been rumours about exposé of National Party links with the Exclusive Brethren sect and wealthy corporate donors.  This kind of journalism is rarely attempted within New zealand's mainstream media organisations. Consequently, the public sphere is routinely shaped by the market researchers, public relations practitioners and micro-managing spin doctors. The reception accorded to Hager's book illustrates this process. 

scholarly journals Muḥammad ʿAbduh’s Notion of Political Adab

2022 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 339-364
Author(s):  
William Ryle-Hodges
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Journalism ◽  
Good Taste ◽  
Modern Context ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Discursive Field

This paper extends the emphasis on contingency and context in Islamic ethical traditions into the distinctly modern context of late 19th century Khedival Egypt. I draw attention to the way Muḥammad ʿAbduh’s engagement with Islamic ethical traditions was shaped by his practice in addressing the broad social and political questions of his context to do with nation-building and political journalism. As a bureaucrat and state publicist, he took pre-modern Islamic ethical concepts into the emerging discursive field of the modern state and the public sphere in Egypt. Looking at a series of newspaper articles for the state newspaper, al-Waqāʾiʿ al-miṣriyya, I show how he articulated an ethics of citizenship by defining a modern civic notion of adab that he called “political adab.” He conceived of this adab as the answer to the problem of how a unified nation emerges from the condition of “freedom” by which journalists and the reading public at the time were conceptualizing the politics of the ʿUrābī revolution in late 1881. This was a “freedom” of the public sphere that allowed for free speech and the power of public opinion to shape governance. ‘Political adab’ would be the virtue or situational skill, internalized in each participant in the public sphere, that would regulate this freedom, ensuring that it produces unity rather than anarchy. I argue that adab here enshrined ʿAbduh’s holistic approach to nation-building; Egypt with political rights would be a nation in which the very idea of the nation is comprehensively embedded—through adab—in people’s lives, animating their “souls”. This was a politics conceived not as a self-standing domain, but as growing out of society, becoming thereby an authentic unity and self-regulating “life”. In developing this vision, ʿAbduh was amplifying pre-modern meanings of adab implying wide breadth of knowledge, good taste, and the virtues, labelled in the paper as ‘comprehensivness,’ ‘consensus’ and ‘habitus.’ Keywords: Muḥammad ʿAbduh, Adab, Freedom, Nation, Politics, Egypt

scholarly journals The corporate takeover of the online public sphere: A critical examination, with reference to 'the New Zealand case'

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lincoln Dahlberg
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Public ◽  
Multiple Alternative ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The One ◽  
And Control

Much communications research is in agreement about the failure of mass media to adequately facilitate a public sphere of open and reflexive debate necessary for strong democratic culture. In contrast , the internet's decentralised, two-way communication is seen by many commentators to be extending such debate. However, there is some ambivalence among critical theorists as to the future role of the internet in advancing the public sphere. On the one hand, the internet is providing the means fot the voicing of positions and identities excluded from the mass media. On the other hand, a number of problem are limiting the extensiveness and effetivness of this voicing. One of the most significant problems is the corporate colonisation of cyberspace, and subsequent marginalisation rational-critical communication. It is this problem that i will focus on in this article, with reference to examples from what I refer to as the 'New Zealand online public sphere'. I show how online corporate portals and media sites are gaining the most attention orientated to public communication, including news, information, and discussion. These sites generally support conservative discourse and consumer practices. The result is a marginalisation online of the very voices marginalised offline, and also of the critical-reflexive form of communication that makes for a strong public sphere. I conclude by noting that corporate colonisation is as yet only partial, and control of attention and media is highly contested by multiple 'alternative' discursive spaces online.

scholarly journals Social Media as Valuable Anti-Corruption Assets in the Public Sphere in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
B. Babasanya ◽  
L. Ganiyu ◽  
U. F. Yahaya ◽  
O. E. Olagunju ◽  
S. O. Olafemi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Class ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Individual

The issue of corruption in Nigeria has assumed a monumental dimension in such a way that it has become a household song and practice. Thus, adopting a rhetoric definition may not be appropriate instead a succinct description will suffice. The dimension of corruption is monumental because it started from pre-independence in the First republic with the first major political figure found culpable and investigated in 1944 and reach its peak recently with the evolvement of ‘godfatherism’ in the political landscape of the country. Therefore, corruption in Nigeria is more or less a household name. Using Social Responsibility Media Theory as a guide, this paper undertakes an examination of the right of the media to inform the public, serve the political system by making information, discussion and consideration of public affairs generally accessible, and to protect the rights of the individual by acting as watchdog over the governments. This discourse analysis is backed up with the presentation of documented materials on tracking corruption through the use of social media. Since the use of mainstream media only is disadvantageous owing to its demand-driven nature, social media stands as a veritable and result-orientated asset in tracking corruption across the public sphere. This paper found that complimented with mainstream media, social media and civic journalism have exposed corrupt tendencies of contractors and public office holders including the political class in the provision and handling of infrastructural development projects thereby make public officials accountable and create an open access to good governance.

scholarly journals Missionary Women as Educators: The CMS School in New Zealand, 1823-1835

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private World ◽  
British Colonization ◽  
Public World ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Missionary Women

Much of the literature on the early period of British colonization of New Zealand has assumed that missionary men participated in the public world of work while their wives participated in the private world of the home. As women have been seen as occupying the domestic sphere of the home, historians have further viewed their work as relatively unimportant. Across this literature it is also usually assumed that—probably because men were engaged in the 'public sphere'—it was the missionary men who were responsible for providing education. This paper concentrates on the activities of two early missionary women, Marianne Williams and her sister-in-law, Jane Williams. There is concrete evidence to suggest that these women were sent to New Zealand as part of the first wave of missionary women to 'civilize' Maori by converting them to Christianity. As women and educators, Marianne and Jane played critical roles in the success of the mission and, as will be argued, their presence in the mission station permitted missionary men to undertake their duties. 

scholarly journals Frontier zones of public policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.I. Soloviev
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Orientation ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
State And Society ◽  
State Public Policy ◽  
Analytical Correction ◽  
The Public Sphere

Referring to the traditional interpretations of “public policy”, the author substantiates the need for analytical correction of its content on the basis of identifying universal parameters of publicity, reflecting a special format of open (public) relations between the state and society. In this context, there are three social spaces of the public sphere, each of which determines the possibilities of implementing the course of citizens' participation in the management and strengthening the social orientation of government policy. The features of the implementation of such a variant of state public policy in modern Russia are briefly outlined.

Religious Sphere in Canada

2014 ◽  
pp. 48-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Eid
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Canadian Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Main Driver ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Religion In Canada

Canadian demographic trends indicate that the number of religious adherents from various faith groups is on the rise. Despite successful integration of some religions into mainstream Canadian society, discrimination against some faith groups persists. Christianity is the dominant religion in Canada, the minorities being Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. The mainstream media are considered a main driver of social cohesion in Canada because they construct ideologies and define communities. They are a key lever in shaping debate about religion in the public sphere; however, debates exist on how religion is portrayed in the media. Despite the vast religious diversity in Canada, media organizations commonly ignore religious minorities, deeming them insignificant, unfavourable, and sometimes invisible. This chapter reviews and compares research findings on Canadian media depictions of these faith groups over the past few decades. Canadians of various faith groups have expressed a wide array of sentiments toward their representations in the media. Vast differences in media depictions exist; however, dominant discourses and representations prevail for each faith group: Christians are the normal group; Muslims are in discord with Western societies; Jews require sympathy; Buddhists are peaceful; Hindus are friendly; and Sikhs are extremists. It is suggested here that considerable research needs to be conducted on Canadian mainstream media patterns of coverage and portrayals of interfaith activities within Canadian society.

scholarly journals ‘Look No Further than the Exterior’: Corruption and Disaster in New Zealand?

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 71-85
Author(s):  
Steve Matthewman
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Transparency International ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ranking Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Classification ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Definition Of

  Transparency International considers New Zealand the least corrupt country in the world. Yet ranking systems can flatter to deceive. This article takes a critical stance towards their global classification, which is a perceptions-based measure that ignores the private sector. In so doing, it heeds David Beetham’s (2015) call for a broader definition of corruption, one that acknowledges the subjugation of the public sphere to secure private advantage. Jane Kelsey (2015: 11, 150) has noted that New Zealand is ‘at the pure end of the neoliberal spectrum’, being ‘first to liberalise, last to regulate’. These points are examined with particular reference to corruption, the construction industry and the country’s numerous housing problems. The opening section of How Corrupt is Britain?, in which Beetham’s work appears, is titled ‘Neoliberalism and Corruption’. This article questions the need for the conjunction.

scholarly journals Kryzys informacji w zmediatyzowanej sferze publicznej – od mediów tradycyjnych do hybrydowych platform komunikacyjnych

2021 ◽  
Vol 13(49) (1) ◽  
pp. 151-166
Author(s):  
Robert Szwed
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Control ◽  
Flow Of Information

The free circulation of information in an open and unfettered public sphere is one of the foundations of well-functioning democracies. For theirs proper functioning, access to reliable information is necessary, which — reaching citizens — allows them to make the right decisions and control power. Many factors should be taken into account when analysing the information production process in new and traditional media: publishers-media owners, advertisers-business, communication technologies, public relations institutions, and now algorithms. An important element are also consumers and prosumers of media content, who try to participate in the media flow of information in a more competent or less competent way. The emergence of communication platforms that redistribute information has revolutionized the relationship between the elite, the media, and the public. More importantly, it contributed to the crisis of the public sphere, trust, and defragmentation of societies. Confused citizens are bombarded with information whose sources they cannot assess and disinformation, fake news, and post-truth have permanently entered the popular dictionary, replacing „unfashionable” propaganda and censorship. The aim of the article will be to analyse the current state of the media sphere through the prism of the weaknesses of traditional journalism, insufficient competences of recipients and uncontrolled flow of information controlled by the attention management industry.

scholarly journals The Māori public sphere

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Stuart
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
News Media ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
General Aspects

At this moment in New Zealand’s history there is a need for healthy political debate on a range of issues. Specifically, the foreshore and seabed issue has created division and fears between Māori and Pakeha and brought the Treaty of Waitangi to the fore again. As well, settlements of historic grievances with Māori have added to growing Pakeha unease. In this climate there is a need for wide-ranging public discussion of these issues, and the news media seem the obvious site for those discussions. But how well are the New Zealand news media fulfilling that role? This commentary takes the public sphere to be the sum total of all visible decision-making processes within a culture and uses this concept as an analytical tool to examine aspects of the health of New Zealand’s democracy. It uses discourse analysis approaches to show how the mainstream media are in fact isolating Māori from the general public sphere and, after outlining some general aspects of the Māori public sphere, argues that the news media’s methodologies, grounded in European-based techniques and approaches, are incapable of interacting with the Māori public sphere. I am arguing that while there is an appearance of an increased awareness and discussion of cultural issues, the mainstream media are, in reality, sidelining Māori voices and controlling the political discussion in favour of the dominant culture. They are therefore not fulfilling their self-assigned role of providing information for people to function within our democracy. Keywords: 

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