scholarly journals Youth impact on the public sphere in Press and Twitter: The dissolution of the Spanish Youth Council

Comunicar ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (55) ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Clua ◽  
Núria Ferran-Ferrer ◽  
Ludovic Terren
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Redes Sociales ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Public ◽  
Youth Council ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Twitter Activity

This paper aims to contribute to the study of the difficulties that young people face in accessing the public sphere as political actors. It looks at the Press coverage and the Twitter activity surrounding the restructuring process and the subsequent dissolution of the Spanish Youth Council (Consejo de la Juventud de España - CJE). A content analysis was carried out on the news published in 22 newspapers between 2012 and 2014, as well as on the use of Twitter within the framework of the “Salvemos el CJE” campaign during the same period of time. The main objective of the analysis has been to see the prominence of this issue on both the media and citizens’ agendas. In most newspapers, the measures taken by the government vis-á-vis the CJE were treated as punctual news of peripheral importance. The online campaign, mainly orchestrated by youth grassroots movements, raised the controversy on the biased nature and the political consequences of this plan. The core of the campaign addressed the representation of young people in public institutions. The results of the study suggest that the increased potential for visibility offered by social media is not always maximized and does not necessarily alter the prominence of an issue in the public sphere. Este artículo pretende contribuir al estudio de las dificultades que encuentran los jóvenes a la hora de acceder a la esfera pública como actores políticos. Concretamente, se centra la atención en la cobertura en prensa y la repercusión en Twitter de la información relativa al proceso de disolución del Consejo de la Juventud de España (CJE). El texto da cuenta del análisis de contenido realizado sobre las noticias aparecidas en 22 periódicos españoles entre los años 2012 y 2014, así como del análisis del posicionamiento en Twitter de la campaña «Salvemos el CJE» durante el mismo período de tiempo. El principal objetivo es ver cómo la cuestión de la disolución del CJE es planteada desde la agenda mediática y desde la agenda ciudadana. En la mayoría de periódicos analizados, las medidas tomadas por el gobierno respecto al CJE son tratadas como un hecho noticioso puntual y de baja repercusión. La campaña online ofrece un discurso gestado desde los movimientos juveniles de base y plantea abiertamente la controversia acerca del sesgo y las consecuencias políticas de esta medida. La campaña gira entorno a la representación de la juventud en las instituciones públicas. Los resultados del estudio muestran cómo las crecientes oportunidades de visibilización que ofrecen las redes sociales no siempre comportan un mejor posicionamiento de un tema en la esfera pública.

Challenging representations of Muslims and cultural métissage in the ethnic comedies L’Italien (2010) and Mohamed Dubois (2013)

2021 ◽  
pp. 095715582110091
Author(s):  
Ramona Mielusel
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
The Public ◽  
French Culture ◽  
French People ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Legislative Measures

In this article, I am looking at two popular ‘ethnic’ comedies, L’Italien (2010) and Mohamed Dubois (2013), that promote dialogue and conviviality between Franco-Maghrebi and Franco-French people in France while questioning the societal feasibility of legislative measures of inclusiveness, visibility and equality of chances promoted by the government in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Considering some challenges in the representations, the comedies offer, at times, a social critique of certain stereotypical views on Islam and the destiny of Muslims on French soil, but they conclude in an optimistic tone supporting the idea that there is cultural métissage in France and that Muslims and Christians do mix in today’s diverse France. The popularity of these comedies attests to the fact that there is a need to bring up the issues of Islam in France and of the cohabitation between Muslims and Christian French citizens in the public sphere. I suggest however that while the Franco-Maghrebi’s ‘essentialist identity’ is challenged in the films, there are still neo-colonialist tensions in the artistic productions that entail ambivalence towards the Muslim characters. In a Franco-French dominated film-consuming culture, the Franco-Maghrebi characters are still subject to mimicry, which consistently maintains their subordinate position in the French culture.

Corporate Politics in the Public Sphere: Corporate Citizenspeak in a Mass Media Policy Contest

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Nyberg ◽  
John Murray
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article connects the previously isolated literatures on corporate citizenship and corporate political activity to explain how firms construct political influence in the public sphere. The public engagement of firms as political actors is explored empirically through a discursive analysis of a public debate between the mining industry and the Australian government over a proposed tax. The findings show how the mining industry acted as a corporate citizen concerned about the common good. This, in turn, legitimized corporate political activity, which undermined deliberation about the common good. The findings explain how the public sphere is refeudalized through corporate manipulation of deliberative processes via what we term corporate citizenspeak—simultaneously speaking as corporate citizens and for individual citizens. Corporate citizenspeak illustrates the duplicitous engagement of firms as political actors, claiming political legitimacy while subverting deliberative norms. This contributes to the theoretical development of corporations as political actors by explaining how corporate interests are aggregated to represent the common good and how corporate political activity is employed to dominate the public sphere. This has important implications for understanding how corporations undermine democratic principles.

Neotoponymy, Appropriation of Space and Youth Political Expression in Tokombéré, Northern Cameroon (1970–2011)

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110638
Author(s):  
Baskouda S.K. Shelley
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Social Field ◽  
Political Expression ◽  
The Public ◽  
Northern Cameroon ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
A Site

Using the example of neotoponyms proliferation in Tokombéré (Northern Cameroon) between 1970 and 2011, this paper questions the banal tactics of naming places as a site of public patriarchy contestation. In fact, young people play a crucial role in reinventing local political power forms of interpellation, which enables them to symbolically reappropriate the space. This helps to establish their presence in the public sphere from which they have been side-lined by social elders. Even though it reflects a political expression, the fact remains that the attribution of toponyms does not really help to reverse their domination into social field.

Liminal Participation: Young People’s Practices in the Public Sphere Between Exclusion, Claims of Belonging, and Democratic Innovation

2021 ◽  
pp. 0044118X2110408
Author(s):  
Ilaria Pitti ◽  
Yagmur Mengilli ◽  
Andreas Walther
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Youth Participation ◽  
European Research ◽  
Research Project ◽  
The Public ◽  
Qualitative Case Studies ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Innovation And Change

Existing understandings of youth participation often imply clear distinctions from non-participation and thus boundaries between “recognized” and “non-recognized” practices of engagement. This article aims at questioning these boundaries. It analyzes young people’s practices in the public sphere that are characterized by both recognition as participation and misrecognition or stigmatization as deviant and it is suggested to conceptualize such practices as “liminal participation.” The concept of liminality has been developed to describe transitory situations “in-between”—between defined and recognized status positions—and seems helpful for better understanding the blurring boundaries of youth participation. Drawing on qualitative case studies conducted within a European research project, the analysis focuses on how young people whose practices evolve at the margins of the respective societies position themselves with regard to the challenges of liminality and on the potential of this for democratic innovation and change.

Mass Communication and the 'Nationalisation' of the Public Sphere in Former Yugoslavia

Res Publica ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-270
Author(s):  
Spyros A. Walgrave
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Cultural Space ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Peace Movements ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

Although the quasi-confederal character of Yugoslavia, especially after the introduction of its 1974 constitution did not encourage the development of a genuine Yugoslavian public sphere wherepublic debate could transcend ethnic and republic divisions, it nevertheless allowed the formation of what could be called Yugoslav cultural space, a space within which social and political actors (feminist, peace movements) forged their identities regardless of the ethnic or national diversity that characterised their membership. However, the existence of this 'space' had a limited impact in Yugoslav politics partly due to the breakdown of inter-republic communication and the fragmentation of the Yugoslavian mass media. This paper traces the process of disintegration of the Yugoslav cultural space and the emergence of national 'public spheres' in the republics and provinces of former Yugoslavia and attempts to assess the role of the mass media and cultural institutions in these developments by identifying the key strategies of representation employed in the process of the fragmentation and 'nationalisation' of the public sphere of former Yugoslavia.

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.

The Consequences of Some Angry Re-Tweets: Another Medium is the Message

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-293
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Martin
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rigid Structure ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractMost research on the Gulf states focuses on oil and its impact on state power. The literature on rentier theory almost unanimously agrees that oil rents buy off citizens and lead to socio-political stagnation. Massive protests and government attempts to address citizen demands in Kuwait between 2011 and 2013 call into question that narrative. Since those protests, the Kuwaiti government has taken steps to increase its representation of public officials and accessibility in the public sphere, including by expanding the government's presence on Instagram. How have Kuwaiti citizens voiced their opinions to government accounts? And how has the government responded to online criticism?This essay looks at the pattern of interactions between the state and Kuwaiti citizens on Twitter and Instagram using a content analysis of government accounts. The findings raise questions about the validity of the payoff thesis and understandings of consent and acquiescence. My analysis illustrates that there is a public dialogue that moves beyond the rigid structure of state and society by which the literature has traditionally understood Gulf rentier societies.

Social Media and Marriage Equality in Australia: The Media Roles in the Public Sphere and the Agenda-Setting

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Yuhanyin Ma
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

<p align="justify">Marriage equality or the equal status of same-sex marriage has undergone a rather tough road in Australia, involving diverging opinions in parties at the state and federal levels and constitutional amendments. It appears that people in power set the agenda on the legalization of same-sex marriage. However, it cannot be denied that social media played an almost decisive role in this process because it enabled the gathering of massive public opinion to pressure the government to make changes. To be specific, social media or social networking sites offered platforms for people concerned to share reports about the progress of foreign countries in legalizing same-sex marriage, to express their opinions and to launch campaigns in support of their beliefs. This essay explores the role that social media played in the legalization of marriage equality movement in Australia from the perspectives of the public sphere theory and the agenda-setting theory.</p>

Rights, obligations and the public sphere: Arguments and options for securing just policies for young people

2002 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-40
Author(s):  
Judith Bessant
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Primary Reason ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Dominant Narratives

Children and young people have too easily been subjected to state-sponsored mistreatment and neglect. One primary reason for the discriminatory and often hostile conduct directed at them by agencies ostensibly established to promote their welfare is that they have been ‘constructed’ as dangerous and ‘antisocial’, or as dependent, incompetent and naïve. A key aim of this article is to promote discussion about the significance of children's and young people's status as a key determinant of policies which routinely override their basic rights. The article argues that attention needs to be given to how child and youth policies can be developed more securely within a justice framework.I argue that, if we are serious about developing both just policies and ethical relationships with young people, we need to recognise the role played by dominant narratives about young people in shaping policies. Once this is achieved, attention can then be directed towards how those identities might be contested and reconstructed. I offer a number of suggestions for securing ethical treatment of young people which includes respecting them as fully-fledged human beings and citizens. I argue that challenging common-sense understandings of young people as dependent, not fully intellectually or morally competent, etc, can inform policies in ways that secure young people's entitlements as full citizens. In particular one way of challenging popular views about young people is to increase their involvement in the public sphere. The fact that most young people cannot currently claim rights for themselves directly is no reason for denying them. Indeed it is a good reason for securing mechanisms for monitoring those who have children in their care and to intervene to put those rights into effect. I also make a case for embedding young people's rights into an account of obligations that can be used to secure respectful and just conduct on the part of older people who have young people in their care.

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