17 Democracy and the Media Notes for Nov 1 Key Concepts The public sphere A Concept described by Jurgen Habermas wanted people to collectively progress as a result of people reaching agreements through rational discussion Spaces private spheres our homes and the government where things get decided The public sphere is a place where the exchange of information can take place so that public opinion can be formed J rgen Habermas Proposed the public sphere Critiques if you look at the construction of these spaces they can be made up of people with certain privileges there is a large emphasis on face to face interaction Theorizing the public sphere Media institutions Share information inclusive voices common identity only one type of public sphere Media representation i Who gets to speak Whose interests are represented ii Bias can shape content whose stories are told how we create meaning Social structures i If we only have one public sphere there are tons of voices that need to be heard ii We can have multiple smaller public spheres so marginalized communities can counteract their invisibility iii Publics counterpublics We can have alternatives to the large public sphere but they may not have as much power Social interaction i People bring what they learn from media into their interactions with others ii Opinion leaders the people who pay really close attention to certain issues so they become an expert on that issue and people turn to them on that issue Electoral politics vs Cultural politics Electoral politics are concerned with voting and government etc where cultural projects are concerned with culture social practices politics of race gender Citizenship At its most basic level it is a legal term that gives you rights Legal citizenship Good Citizen A contract we uphold with our fellow citizens Imagined Community Cultural citizenship Feeling of belonging feeling like your identity is accepted Stats and Quotes A strong public sphere that works to uphold democracy Can be developed or constrained through different kinds of media regulations Is dependent on what kinds of representations we see in the media Operates more realistically when we think about multiple publics based on social structures has an impact through social interaction In ideal terms Habermas conceptualizes the public sphere as that realm of social life where the exchange of information and views on questions of common concern can take place so that public opinion can be formed Dahlgren 527 Entertainment media are often seen as distractions from the serious duty of the informed citizen Yet recent scholarship has demonstrated to the contrary that citizens who employ a variety of popular media in their encounters with politics actually derive meaningful engagement with the political process Jones 551 The most common and frequent form of political activity comes for most people through htheir choosing attending to processing and engaging myriad media texts about the formal political process of government and political institutions as they conduct their daily lives Jeffrey Jones p 558