acsm jakob linaa jensen social media and the siloization of the public sphere
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The siloization of the public sphere?
Social Media and the Transformation of Public SpaceAmsterdam June 18th to 20th 2014
Jakob Linaa Jensen, Ph.D., associate professor,Media Studies and Center for Internet Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
Mail: [email protected] Twitter: jakoblinaa Skype: jakoblinaa
WORK IN PROGRESS – PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT PERMISSION
AgendaThe public sphere – a contested conceptBeyond Habermasian idealsPublics in the age of digital mediaStriated versus smooth spaceSiloization or….?
This is not….An analysis of deliberation in online debates –
upcoming in journal MedieKulturThe Replacement and Mobilisation Hypotheses
revisited (in Scandinavian Political Studies, 2013)Investigation of citizenship online (Policy &
Internet, 2011)An analysis of the Internet in elections – past
reports on national elections and coming work on the EP election
It is….theoretical reflections based on own studies and
international experienceswork in progress, many reflections are unfinishedSo comments are most welcome….
The public sphere – a contested concept
Habermas: coffee houses as examples of a public sphere
Dewey: from “great society” to “great community”Kant: reflective judgement
These classic notions emphasize the role of mediaProcesses of deliberation are centralStrong criteria for conditions and procedures
Critique of the “classic” public sphere
Exclusive (for the educated and the able)Trade off between deliberation and inclusionDiscourse ethics exclude passion, emotionsEpistemological problems: reality rarely fulfills
Habermasian idealsArenas: the public sphere takes place in many
settings
Updated concepts of the public sphere must include
Focus on deliberation – but also on inclusionFocus on visibility and the spectacularThe spatial perspective – from coffee houses to
social media and back to the city squares
And of course media are still what binds together citizens and politicians
The public sphere in the digital age
Gitlin (1998) Seperate public spheres, defined by affinity, interst
Hartley (2002) Public Sphere in the Media SphereTerranova (2004) Hydrospheres Benkler (2006) Networked public shereFoot & Schneider (2006) Issue networks = web
sphweresBoyd (2011) Networked publics
Social media democratize?Spectacular effectsBut not the only causeBased on media hypes – augmented by other
media
But limited lasting mobilizationCentered around short time spansEphimeral communities (Christensen, 2011, 12,
13)
Facebook democracyLikes, groups still the most popularStatements, more about visibility than involvement?
Feel good “slacktivism” (Fuchs, 2014)Ephemeral communities? (Christensen & Christensen, 2011, 12)
Recent cases of political scandals in Denmark
Eager discussions, news sharing, jokesBut people tend to reconfirm their views
#loekkeerminformand - support#loekkeerminfarmand – irony, sarcasm
Social media as source for the pressBut also tends to correct mistakes by the press
Seggregation, fragmentationDavis (1998) demonstrated that Republicans stick
to Republicans, Democrats to DemocratsSimilar trends in DenmarkBesides statements and single issues, people do
not really engage on Facebook with political opponents – except to “troll”
Monadic clusters (Kenneth Gergen)
So maybe more about visibility than deliberation
The spatial perspective revisited
– smooth or striated space?
The smooth public sphere online
John Perry Barlow – a Declaration of Independence in Cyberspace
Electronic Frontier FoundationHoward Rheingold – Virtual CommunitiesBenjamin Barber – online townhall meetings
The monks’ protest in Burma
The Iran Twitter revolution
The actors behind the striated….
National governments - politicians fear the loss of control
Hillary Clinton: WikiLeaks release an 'attack on international community’
International society - ICANN and World Internet Forum, limits to freedom of speech
Corporations fear a free Internet which cannot be exploited commercially
Smooth versus striatedTechnology is not neutral, sets the framesGovernments, corporations, institutions define and
regulate the frames
The social media public sphere adds to visibility more than deliberation
But more importantly, facilitate Foucauldian heterotopia, smooth counter-spheres….
A social construction of technology
WE write the story – within the technological and cultural frames we can affect to some or a large extent
Heterotopias, reconfigurations or re-confimation
In sumToday, the discussion of the Internet and the
public sphere is not about the level of deliberation
It is about whether a coherent public sphere is possible in a world of fragmented, personalized media technologies, siloization
And it is about the battles between actors of striated and smooth spaces
“Siloization”
