Relationship of Traditional Public Sphere with the Media and the Internet - Assignment Example

The letters-to-the-editor page in newspapers and on-line represents the effective operation of a traditional public sphere in action. Taking into consideration different publication types, such as blogging, argue for or against this statement. The concept of the public sphere was first introduced by Jurgen Habermas to describe an ideal democratic space for discourse and debate among informed and engaged citizens as well as an arena that mediates between the state and society. People arguing that such an ideal canot be realized have constantly criticized this concept. However, it has is constantly be invoked and that many scholars have discussed its relationship with the media and the Internet. For this paper, I will be analyzing the letter to the editor section of the newspapers as well as blogging and the Internet in general. I will answer the question whether they satisfy the requirements of the traditional public sphere. Background It s important to establish what constitutes the public sphere in order to assess whether the letter to the editor and the Internet – blogging, forums and online publications – operate in the same context. As defined in the work of eminent philosopher Jurgen Habermas – a central figure in the public sphere discourse – the public sphere is: A domain in our social life where such a thing as public opinion can be formed [where] citizens…deal with matters of general interest without being subject to coercion… [to] express and publicize their views. (p. 121) The public sphere, as it is, is a metaphor for the public space wherein the inhabitants or citizens in a community, a country express their ideas and discuss issues in order for them to reach agreement or merely understanding on matters of general interest. Allan McKee added that: It is where each of us finds out about what’s happening in our community, and what social, cultural and political issues are facing us. It’s where we engage with these issues and add our voices to discussions about them, playing our part in the process of a society reaching a consensus or compromise about what we think about issues, and what should be done about them. (p. 4-5) The public sphere, wrote Monroe Price (1995), is a zone for discourse which serves as a locus for the exploration of ideas and the crystallization of a public view. (p. 24) As a locus, the public sphere , though not a physical place, is where debate takes place – one that has consequences. The public sphere in the Habermasian description is a zone in which there is sufficient access to information so that rational discourse and the pursuit of beneficial general norms is made more likely. Hence, such sphere is constituted by a set of activities in which the authority of preexisting status attributes such as wealth, family, and ethnicity, lose their sway in the distribution of civic authority. In summary, the traditional concept of the public sphere emphasizes the importance of political discourse among citizens and that it plays a fundamental role in ensuring the continuation of a civic and democratic society. Media The public sphere, particularly in light of its evolution, has come to be associated with the modern concept of democracy and its relationship with the media. The proposition that the media can be considered as a public sphere is difficult to sustain. In assessing the media in the context of public sphere, one finds a somewhat imperfect version of public sphere. The requirements for the ideal public sphere outline the fundamental conditions as: 1) accessibility to citizens; 2) relatively low entry costs and, 3) relatively equal opportunities. (Price, p. 26) It is obvious that in the media, there is a cost to participate and entry is scarce. This is manifested by the force of advertising, the power of public relations, the transformation of entire systems of sponsorship of speech. A major constraint on the mass media realizing their public sphere role arises from the fact that the growing amount of cultural production is in the hands of powerful media organizations whose sole raison d’etre is profit. (Deveraux 2003, p. 66) These variables distort or mutilate the ideal public-sphere model due to the imbalances of access, wealth and power. Ironically, the media has been linked to the introduction of public sphere as early as its inception. According to Habermas, the modern concept of private and public spheres is connected to the establishment of the liberal society, where news became a commodity sold by merchants. This led to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cultures of open debate in newspapers and in coffee shops of large European cities. For scholars who lament the decline of public sphere, the media has much to do with it. Richard Sennett argued that the one-way, mass broadcasting of radio and television made reasoning and debate between individuals almost impossible. He stressed: Electronic communications is one means by which the very idea of public life has been put to an end. The media has vastly increased the store of knowledge social groups have about each other, but have rendered actual contact unnecessary. (p. 282) Sennett saw this tendency to have begun in the nineteenth-century theatres and concert halls, where a ‘crowd silence’ (p. 283) was established as a norm. Electronic media, for Sennett, intensifies this norm. He argued that “You’ve got to be silent to be spoken to… Passivity is the “logic” of this technology.” (p. 283) The process of us, thinking about the way that issues are circulated in our culture, then processed by individuals and institutions and then recirculated until we reach some kind of agreement about what to do with them, is not media’s doing entirely. For example, we discuss an issue we have heard with a friend, then exchange ideas with the customers in the pub, at the salon, then we phone our relatives and people we know, boycott a newspaper when we disagree with its political stance. These are all part of the public sphere and a lot of it does not involve the media. These are human interactions and it is part of the public sphere as much as television, radio and the print media. In particular, Letter to the Editor Letters to the editor deal with more civic-minded topics and that some consider as a rough barometer of public opinions. (Sigelman and Walkosz 1992) However, some scholars do not agree with this. David Gudelunas, for instance, stated that the letters tend to be only hazy approximations of public opinion and that letter writers are not representative of the general population. (p. 23) He added that the letters also typically go unanswered. However, letters to the editor, as previously mentioned, is considered a process that is part of the public sphere. Though it does not constitute a two-way communication, this section in the newspaper encourage civic dialogue. In addition it is fundamental to understanding the newspaper’s role in mobilizing the public sphere. When a citizen writes a letter to the editor, she addresses the public. The words are typeset, printed in multiple copies of the paper, then distributed to houses, people, businesses, read or ignored, or disposed of. A few copies may find their way to the libraries, coffee shops or archives, then passes hand to hand in the railway station. Such letter could also be reprinted, clipped, sent to new readers via mail or posted in a community bulletin board. If one has to trace a map of the route that the letter to the editor has taken, one would find a multiple branching of lines, some long, some short while some doubling back on each other. Newspapers have also expanded their letters to the editor in their online editions. Here, the readers can write their comments and feedback on issues reported. The New York Times and several other online newspapers show ranked lists of the articles that readers have most frequently read, emailed and blogged. The development of this interactive news delivery has bring the medium closer to the public sphere, thanks to the wonder of the new internet technology. Internet Eoin Devereux argued that the Internet is dominated by mass-media conglomerates or oligopolies that the potential for public sphere of this medium not equal. He said: Powerful commercial interests have colonized the internet. The colonization and commercialization of Internet is evident every time you log on to the Internet via one of the major internet service providers (ISPs). (p. 66) Deveraux may have a point because a study by Campbell and Breen (2001) demonstrated the role of ISPs and portals that may have an impact in regard to equal access. To quote: The issue of portals has become important because whichever company gains dominance will have a huge captive audience for on-screen advertising and various forms of direct and indirect marketing. The portals also make sure that when their users look for particular services (e.g. on-line bookstores), they are first directed to those companies who have paid the portals’ owners to promote them. (p. 230) The above argument, however, is less significant when compared with the potential of the Internet to realize its role in the public sphere. In fact, such argument is even insufficient to argue that the Internet is controlled and manipulated by powerful moguls and capitalists. The Internet infrastructure promises an unlimited and unregulated discourse that operates beyond geographic boundaries. Hence, its emergence suggest a virtual reincarnation of the public sphere, which for some have already met its death. It appears that with available technology and hardware, there is less limit in regard to access. This is demonstrated by the rate in which internet usage grow from 2000-2009. The world total growth is pegged 362 percent and that while the internet penetration rate in the African population, for instance, is 6.7% only (the lowest among the regions of the world) the growth rate is 1,359%. (MMG 2009) While people argue that access to the internet is not equal, the figures says otherwise. In 2000, the world internet users is pegged at 3.6 million but in 2009, this has reached more than 6.7 billion users and growing. (MMG) So far, this channel has the widest reach among all the traditional media. Because of the Internet, audiences today are anything but passive. According to a 2005 survey reported by the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet (2005), in an average week every third Norwegian published something online. Even Habermas recognizes this. In his most recent book, he observed: The Internet has brought about an unimagined broadening of the media sphere, and an unprecedented consolidation of communication networks. Intellectuals used to swim around the public sphere like fish in water, but this environment has become ever more inclusive than ever. (cited in Rettberg 2008, p. 47) And so, we have a case wherein technology revolutionize the way we interact and hence the public sphere is achieved. Previously, printing press and television production studios require skill and money to operate and so not everyone could have their own television stations or run their own newspapers. Now, however, the Internet allow a far-less cheaper and far-less skill-intensive access to publication and distribution. So everyone is empowered, more than ever, to talk, write and express in this sphere. We can see this demonstrated in the cases of blogging and forums that litter the web. Blogging Even though the Internet as this paper would mention later on, privileges the flow of online life material generated in English and from the USA, it set up a system wherein anyone can jostle for virtual space. The weblogs or simply blogs is a case in point. Andrew Chadwick defined blogs as web pages that consist of regular or daily posts, arranged in reverse chronological order and archived. (p. 237) The interactive loops and circuits of weblogs are styled in the absence of some traditional commercial and political gatekeepers of testimony, namely, the editors and publishers, the benevolent advocates and sponsors of subaltern narratives. (Whitlock 2007, p. 37) Here, there is an interface that allows a more direct and sometimes bracing interaction and engagement with readers – a key rhetorical feature of online life writing - takes on the work of mediation. In addition, the process of testing and questioning authenticity and truth become more explicit and freer, particularly when skeptical, aggressive and openly engaged readers enter the exchange through comments and feedbacks. Of course, there are numerous blogs that are not into political or social discourses or conversational in nature but merely personal accounts and self-confessional posts. However, there are blogs that, for many instances, have exerted sizeable influence over the society and the mainstream media usually by creating noise over issues or political candidates initially marginalized by the mainstream media. There are also blogs that are closely linked and networked with each other that a new post is broadcasted instantly through email, RSS feeds and other forms of communication applications. Several major news outlets such as the CNN use blog as a finger on the pulse of the people substitute and routinely feature stories or content on what “the blogs” are reporting on a given day. There are also news outlets that have incorporated blogging in their news delivery in such a way that presents a more in-depth reporting and/or indulge specific journalist story interests. Out of all these, it is important to underscore that audience, viewer and readers are usually included in the discourse of a particular because they are allowed to post on feedback and comments sections that often turn into real-time dialogues and conversations in themselves. Forums Online forums are also one recognized as one of the Internet-mediated publicness that resembles the traditional concept of public sphere. This is demonstrated by the case of a study that attempted to apply the Habermasian public sphere. In this case, Cameroonian citizens overseas have decided to form a democratic public sphere patterned after Habermas priniciple. Kehbuma Langmia provided us an account: By forming a list ser on the Internet using Yahoo as their ISP, they have been able to create a forum to debate Cameeronian politics and other issues affecting their fatherland. This sphere has been created along mixed gender lines as well as separate gender lines. This study chose four Cameroonian websites… on main topics that were being debated upon during… the time that the chief executive of the country was to be elected. (p. 71) In the Cameroonian public sphere there was free speech during the debate on the opposition and government on who should be entrusted with the people’s mandate to govern the state. All participants were of the same race, status were respected but not seen as restraining free speech. All in all, it characterized the ideal Habermas public sphere. There numerous other online forums forums catering to different groups of people and dedicated to various political, social, economic and cultural interests. Conclusion What the letter to the editor, blogs and forums tell us in the context of public sphere is that the concept has been specialized or that it has now less scope instead of a broadly based public sphere. The modern society including the tools available such as the media and technology has produced a complexity that proposes a thinking that calls for a range of public spheres that appeal to different kinds of audience members rather than a single and general public sphere. Nonetheless, the contemporary period is an exciting time for public sphere. Because of technology, people are encouraged to talk, write, express, demonstrate, signify and perform in a world with and for others. As mentioned earlier, there is some form of reincarnation of the public sphere with the inclusive, immediate and far-reaching nature of today’s technology. Bibliography Campbell, P.B. and Breen, M.J. 'The Net, its gatekeeper, their bait and its victims: ethical issues relating to the Internet' in E. Cassidy and A.G. McGrady (eds.) Media and the Marketplace: Ethical Perspectives. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 2001. Deveraux, Eoin. Understanding the media. SAGE, 2003. Gudelunas, David, Confidential to America: newspaper advice columns and sexual education. Aldine Transactions, 2007. Habermas, Jurgen. Jürgen Habermas on society and politics: a reader. Steven Seidman (ed.). Beacon Press, 1989. Miniwatts Marketing Group (MMG). Internet World Stats." Retrieved 09 Sept 2009, from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm McKee, Alan. The public sphere: an introduction. Cambridge University Press, 2005. Price, Monroe. Television, the public sphere, and national identity. 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