scholarly journals Social Media as a New Form of Public Sphere

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Erlis Çela
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Sciences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Web Communication ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
First Time

The public sphere is a concept widely studied from many different disciplines such as political sciences, sociology, dhe communication sciences. It is crucial for the well-functioning of democracy, to have a well-structured process which creates the public opinion as a synthesis of individual thoughts acting for the common interest. The concept public sphere in itself and its formation process has gone through a lot of changes since the time where the german scholar Jurgen Habermas brought for the first time its definition. The appearance of the new medias and the development in the communication technology have brought huge transformations even in the conceptual term of public sphere and public discourse. Web communication, especially the communication handled in the dixhital environment is a completely new reality which needs to be explored. Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube etc, are a new communication field being used from the public factors to communicate with the audiences. The technical opportunities that these platforms offer make it possible for the transmitter and the receiver of the message to communicate in a higher level. In contrast, virtuality serves as an inducement mean for the users in the social network to be near the participators in the process of communication.

Everyday Editorial Practices and the Public Sphere: Analysing the Letters to the Editor Page of a Regional Newspaper

2004 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 186-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Gregory ◽  
Brett Hutchins
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Editorial Staff ◽  
Daily Newspaper ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
Daily News ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Editorial Practices

This paper investigates the social construction of a site of public discourse: the letters to the editor page of an Australian regional daily newspaper, The Daily News.1 Of key concern are the processes through which public discourse is constructed and mediated by those who select and edit letters for publication. Drawing on a content analysis of the letters page and in-depth interviews with the editorial staff, it is demonstrated how routine practices and the social knowledge of media workers play a specific and discernible role in shaping public dialogue. In light of the findings presented, the concluding section discusses the relationship between editorial practices and the public sphere.

The Role of Twitter in Opening New Domains of Discourse in the Public Sphere

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Badreya Nasser Al-Jenaibi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Flow Of Information

The use of Twitter to coordinate political dialogue and crisis communication has been a vital key to its legitimization. In the past few years, the users of Twitter were increased in the GCC. Also, the use of social media has received a lot of ‘buzz' due to the events that unfurled in the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt during the Arab Spring. Although not as dramatic as overthrowing a regime, the use of social media has been revolutionary in most areas of the Middle East, especially in the most conservative societies that have been relatively closed to the flow of information. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, for example, now have the largest-growing Twitter community of all the nations in the Arabian Gulf. Known for its tight rein on public discourse and the flow of information, even elements of the current regime are opening doors to a new public discourse, due in large part to the influence of social media. This paper explores the social media phenomenon that has had such an impact on the relatively closed societies of the Arab world, examining how it has changed the nature of the public sphere. The researcher used content analysis of four GCC journalists' accounts for four months. The paper concludes that the use of Twitter is shifting the Arab public's discourse and opinions in the region because those opinions are being heard instead of censored. Social media is having a major impact on the conservative Saudi, Qatar, and UAE societies.

Structural Analysis to Measure the Influence of Think Tanks’ Networks in the Digital Era

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-395
Author(s):  
Juan Luis Manfredi-Sánchez ◽  
Juan Antonio Sánchez-Giménez ◽  
Juan Pizarro-Miranda
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Structural Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Public Sphere

Ideas fuel power, giving means, understanding and arguments to the public sphere. Think tanks are the most influential actors in creating and disseminating such ideas in the field of international relations. This article analyses the networks of relations among think tanks in order better to understand their nature and the ways in which they operate in a global reality, organized by geographical areas. The research method is by structural analysis, using raw data collected on Twitter. Most of the think tanks selected are those categorized by the gotothinktank.com study. The main conclusions are that English is the predominant language, that geography still matters in influencing ideas and that us-based think tanks lead the social media conversation.

Epistemological Ambivalence: Richard Rorty on Religion and Public Discourse

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-109
Author(s):  
Terrence Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Richard Rorty ◽  
Social Good ◽  
The Public ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Public Sphere

The late Richard Rorty famously argued that faith-based positions grounded in comprehensive worldviews or unassailable texts served as ‘conversation-stoppers’ and should be excluded from the public sphere. This article argues that Rorty’s position flies in the face of his own postmodern epistemology as well as his insistence on the humility and virtues that should attend the collective pursuit of the social good. It suggests that there are two Rortys at work and that his epistemological ambivalence undermines the force of his argument.

scholarly journals UNRULY WOMEN IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE: LA BARBE ON LE PETIT JOURNAL

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy E Forrest
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Television Programme ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article considers the social consequences of transgressing expected norms of gendered behaviour in the public sphere of a mainstream French television programme. La Barbe, who appeared on Le Petit Journal in December 2011, elicited an onslaught of indignant and sardonic public responses via social media. Drawing on Meehan (1995), Fraser (1990, 1995), and Landes (1995), this article analyses the televised appearance and the online reactions. Due to La Barbe’s unsuccessful communication and interested discourse, the public denounced, and so attempted to regulate, feminist disobedience.

scholarly journals Social Media, Populism, and Migration

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Datts
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Web ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
And Migration

Several scholars have attributed high hopes to social media regarding their alleged ability to enable a nonhierarchical and freely accessible debate among the citizenship (Loader & Mercea, 2011; Shirky, 2011). Those hopes have culminated in theses such those describing the social web as being a ‘new public sphere’ (Castells, 2009, p. 125) as well as in expectations regarding its revitalizing potential for the ‘Habermas’s public sphere’ (Kruse, Norris, & Flinchum, 2018, p. 62). Yet, these assumptions are not uncontested, particularly in the light of socially mediated populism (Mazzoleni & Bracciale, 2018). Interestingly, research on populism in the social web is still an exception. The same is true for the populist permeation of the social media discourse on migration, as a highly topical issue. This study seeks to elaborate on this research gap by examining to what extent the Twitter debate on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM) was permeated by populist content. For this purpose, almost 70,000 tweets on the most important Hashtags referring to the GCM that took place in Marrakesh in December 2018 were collected and the 500 widest-reaching tweets analysed in terms of their populist permeation. Against initial expectations, the empirical findings show that populist narratives did not dominate the Twitter debate on migration. However, the empirical results indicate that ordinary citizens play an important role in the creation and dissemination of populist content. It seems that the social web widens the public sphere, including those actors who do not communicate in accordance with the Habermasian conceptualization of it.

scholarly journals Social Media and the Public Sphere

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Inaugural Lecture ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The University

Social media has become a key term in Media and Communication Studies and public discourse for characterising platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Blogspot, Weibo, Pinterest, Foursquare and Tumblr. This paper discusses the role of the concept of the public sphere for understanding social media critically. It argues against an idealistic interpretation of Habermas and for a cultural-materialist understanding of the public sphere concept that is grounded in political economy. It sets out that Habermas’ original notion should best be understood as a method of immanent critique that critically scrutinises limits of the media and culture grounded in power relations and political economy. The paper introduces a theoretical model of public service media that it uses as foundation for identifying three antagonisms of the contemporary social media sphere in the realms of the economy, the state and civil society. It concludes that these limits can only be overcome if the colonisation of the social media lifeworld is countered politically so that social media and the Internet become public service and commons-based media.Acknowledgement: This paper is the extended version of Christian Fuchs’ inaugural lecture for his professorship of social media at the University of Westminster that he took up on February 1st, 2013. He gave the lecture on February 19th, 2014, at the University of Westminster.The video version of the inaugural lecture is available at:https://vimeo.com/97173645

scholarly journals Social Media and the Public Sphere

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Inaugural Lecture ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The University

Social media has become a key term in Media and Communication Studies and public discourse for characterising platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Blogspot, Weibo, Pinterest, Foursquare and Tumblr. This paper discusses the role of the concept of the public sphere for understanding social media critically. It argues against an idealistic interpretation of Habermas and for a cultural-materialist understanding of the public sphere concept that is grounded in political economy. It sets out that Habermas’ original notion should best be understood as a method of immanent critique that critically scrutinises limits of the media and culture grounded in power relations and political economy. The paper introduces a theoretical model of public service media that it uses as foundation for identifying three antagonisms of the contemporary social media sphere in the realms of the economy, the state and civil society. It concludes that these limits can only be overcome if the colonisation of the social media lifeworld is countered politically so that social media and the Internet become public service and commons-based media.Acknowledgement: This paper is the extended version of Christian Fuchs’ inaugural lecture for his professorship of social media at the University of Westminster that he took up on February 1st, 2013. He gave the lecture on February 19th, 2014, at the University of Westminster.The video version of the inaugural lecture is available at:https://vimeo.com/97173645

scholarly journals Isu Tubuh Perempuan dalam Post terkait NoBra Day Melalui Sudut Pandang Feminisme Posmodern

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Margarita Febrica Nonga Putri
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Reception Theory ◽  
Luce Irigaray ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Stuart Hall ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Woman's Body

<p>Woman’s body is an issue in No Bra Day movement in the social media, basically, mobilizes female netizens to fight breast cancer together by taking off their bras for a day. As it started globally on October 13th, 2013, this movement attracts pro and contra reaction. The responses are linked by the use of related hash tags. As exposing women’s body to the public sphere considered as uncommon, this movement is oftentimes underestimated. On the contrary, this movement brings a new meaning on woman’s body. This encoded meaning cannot be absorbed thoroughly by the female netizens because of the patriarchal construction. The achieved meaning cannot be one hundred percent as it aims to. Furthermore, the decoded meaning still shows the affirmation to patriarchal order. As a media product, the reception theory of Stuart Hall and postmodern feminism of Luce Irigaray are used to examine the new meaning interpreted and reflected in the responses, which also show the affirmation or even internalization to the patriarchal order.</p>

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