Media, Citizenship and Civic Culture - Essay Example

MEDIA, CITIZENSHIP AND CIVIC CULTURE Thesis: The role of citizens in the society. Introduction Citizens are not inherently inferior to their leaders or rulers. They are not subjects. Monarchies, whether absolute or constitutional, preserve the elements of slavery and subjection. The myths of hierarchy, stability and continuity are sustained. Since the Civil War, the virtual structures of relative social status have been maintained, inhibiting citizenship. The order of things is, behind the scenes, imagined as unchanging. For John Bellers, and his successors in the Lunar Society, the answer was Citizenship in the workplace. Citizens fit into the order of things, where everyone knows their place. The presence of defined citizens makes it easier to give status to others. In a world of stability, Citizenship can seem a natural element of creation. Change disturbs stability could bring chaos and revolution. Thus, in order to confirm the longed-for stability of world after the years of war, with a manufactured veneer of science, other races were sacrificed. There was pressure to establish order in the disciplines from media, as well as in politics. In catering for the needs of elites, there were casualties. Enlightenment philosophers defined the limits for citizenship and understood its importance in the society. The Encyclopaedists explored the nature of work, and appreciated the importance of skill. Role of Citizens As on the past and present issues surrounding Citizenship, we encounter a number of challenges, and key unifying concepts, such as self-determination. Under slavery, individuals are denied control over their own life and work, together with denial of participation in decisions about their own futures. It is not just a matter of making sense of the historical past, but of acting in the context of the present workplace. Print, electronic and television-broadcasting media has worked in constructing clarity on duties and practices, building a bottom up network based national institutional structure to address key issues of Citizenship and work organization. The objectives are to increase individual autonomy and self-determination; and facilitate team working, networking and coalition building; resulting in healthier work, improved work life balance and a more equitable distribution of power and resources. On this basis, self-determination is a unifying theme at individual, group and political levels. The issues are international. Citizenship dates from antiquity, continuing in various forms to the present day. In Ancient Greece, as in the newly independent United States of America, the rhetoric of democracy coexisted with the reality of slavery to Citizenship. Human rights were subordinated to property rights. Not everything changes. When considering Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Rights, for example, should we work at the level of individuals, or of groups? Should we operate at national or international level? Through media networks and NGOs, we can work at many levels at once. This has long been the basis of trade union activity. We can learn from long standing debates involving organizations such as UNESCO, Amnesty International and International Alert, who have tackled restrictive approaches taken by governments. The key issues of control and participation can be seen as vital in the spheres of politics and work. In both cases, social standing directly affects health and life chances. People typically seek various forms of autonomy, and a chance to participate in decisions about their own futures. As the dividing lines between work and the rest of life become blurred, concepts such as self-determination find new application, reviving discussion of democracy in the workplace. There are added pressures from globalization, technological transformation, new forms of work organization and demographic change. It is not just a matter of analysis, but of creating actionable knowledge. The political challenges of citizens continue, and lessons can be learned from different experiences around the world. The Dalai Lama continues to seek a peaceful way forward for Tibet. His example influenced the campaigns for self-determination and independence in the Baltic States, and in particular Lithuania. Legal arguments developed for Tibet were applied in the Lithuanian case. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are now members of the European Union. Self-determination in the workplace remains a complex and pressing issue, but the concept may be valuable in combating the less pleasant implications of globalization. As we see major corporations outsourcing and offshoring, lines of responsibility and accountability can become blurred. Sometimes it seems that Corporate Social Responsibility is seen as applying only in one country, and to be invoked only as a tool for public relations and marketing. Concluson The extreme nature of slavery, representing the complete denial of self-determination and individual agency, induces a reluctance to use the word even rhetorically to describe aspects of work anywhere in contemporary world. It is also very clear that citizens control their own life and work, together with participation in decisions about their own futures is a characteristic of contemporary working life for the great majority of them in the society. Public policy measures such as the European Information and Consultation Directive (European Commission, 2002) represent an important statement of intent about self-determination and citizenship. Evidence that citizen empowerment “works” in terms of innovation, business performance and competitiveness is compelling. Yet little can be inferred about the common experience of work. What we do know is that there is a persistent gap between progressive practice and common practice in the workplace: a long tail of organizations whose employees are, to varying degrees, disengaged and disempowered. Work can be the most significant way, in which citizens engage with, and construct, the world. This axiom recurs in philosophy and research throughout the modern era: in Marx, in Ruskin’s attack on the degradation of creative work by machines, in Hannah Arendt’s theories of self-actualization, in the Human Relations School and its successors, and in banal HR clichés. People at work are rarely treated as if this was the case. Constructing work as a developmental activity would, as the above suggest, place a premium on trust, autonomy, tacit knowledge, reflection and creativity. As several studies have found, such workplaces do exist, but in small numbers, often having experienced a process of gestation which is hesitant, incomplete and under pressure. Even evidence of demand for self-determination amongst citizens is scarce and contradictory. Empirical observation can provide only a part of the answer. Command and control has become a very unfashionable idea. Reference Peter Dahlgren. 2000. Media, Citizenship, and Civic Culture. London: Arnold. Read More